November 05, 2023

Taking a Breather

Wafers-

I'd like to switch subjects for a moment, and take a breather from our discussion of the events going down in the Middle East, which has left most of us, I'm guessing, pretty depressed. The following essay is something I wrote a few months ago. I sent a memo about it to American and British journals, and (here's a shocker) got no reply. So I'm going to post it here. Meanwhile, my Mexican editor is going to translate it into Spanish; I'm guessing some journal in Mexico City will pick it up. But here's the original version, in any case; hope you all enjoy it.

The Never-Ending Conflict: Tribalism Versus Rationalism in Human History

"[O]pposing forces routinely coexist in biological systems."—Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score

A number of years ago I wrote an essay called “Tribal Consciousness and Enlightenment Tradition.”(1) In this essay, I was following the thesis proposed by Neal Stephenson in his novel Snow Crash, which is in turn based on the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins’ concept of the meme: “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.” Less charitably, we might describe the process of diffusion as a kind of viral infection, or perhaps as brainwashing. It is essentially a blind process, an unthinking one—a tribal consciousness, as it were, which could also be compared to a trance, or medieval possession. In tribal consciousness, what counts for truth are not facts or data or any type of objective evidence, but blood, kinship relations, affinity groups, and community. McCarthyism is a good example of this (as is communism, of course), brilliantly illustrated by Arthur Miller in his play The Crucible. When the US Government sent the Rosenbergs to their deaths, for example (1951), the outcome of this trial was preordained; evidence was the least of the prosecution’s concerns. Cold War America was the “tribe” that had to be protected at all costs, and the trial was basically a sham as a result. In my own view, and that of a number of other historians (e.g., William Appleman Williams, Denna Fleming, Walter LeFeber), the Cold War could be seen as a trance that possessed the United States for decades, and it did incalculable damage to America in the process.

Stephenson’s focus, however, is not Cold War America but the mythological consciousness of the ancient world, which was tribal and pagan. There were, he says, various attempts to break out of the trance of magic/sacrifice/sun worship and so on; the most successful of these was Israelite monotheism—a counter-virus, he calls it. Judaism, he goes on, was the first rational religion, but eventually it hardened into legalism and Pharisaism—ritual without content—to be challenged by Christ. (“What comes out of your mouth is more important than what goes into it.”) Through the efforts of Paul, this eventually became the next meme, until it was in turn challenged by Martin Luther many centuries later. Centuries after that, Protestantism was rejected by New Age spirituality, which spits up Oprah and Chopra, leaders of the latest trance, who are blindly adored by millions. And so on. This is a cycle that writers such as John Gray (Black Mass) and Eric Hoffer (The True Believer) have described in exhausting detail.(2)

Mimetic thinking, of course, is the rule rather than the exception. It, not critical thinking, is the norm for the human race. Yet things shifted in a radical direction during 800-200 B.C., what has been called the “Axial Age.” This concept was the brainchild of the German psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers, who pointed out that during the centuries just noted, a number of sages arose, more or less simultaneously and independently of one another, espousing an entirely new way of thinking. This was what has been called second-order thinking: in other words, thinking about thinking (reflection, analysis). As opposed to tribal trance, in which people are immersed in their thoughts, and in whatever surrounds them, axial thinking consists of distance, perspective, and objective evaluation. Thus Socrates proclaims that the unexamined life is not worth living, and urges Athenian youth to question conventional beliefs; the Buddha formulates the practice of meditation, in which one part of the mind (the “Watcher”) observes the random thoughts that come and go when you just close your eyes, sit still, and concentrate on your breath; the Hebrew Prophets inveigh against the polytheism of the Canaanites in favor of the one and only God, Yahweh, who issues directives from on high; and Confucius promulgates societal rules and moral values—directives for living the good life. The world, Jaspers concluded, was permanently altered as a result.(3)

The result I am referring to is what I call the never-ending conflict. In recent years, the most famous illustration of this is the movie The Matrix (1999), although it was prefigured by Ira Levin in his novel This Perfect Day (1970). (Recall also Huxley’s Brave New World, in which almost the entire population is zonked out on “soma.”) The plot is that you have a society caught up in a trance, except for one individual (“Neo”), along with several others, who manage to see through the trance—i.e., achieve second-order thinking—and as a result, escape from that society.

The Matrix was lionized; it grossed over $460 billion at the box office during its first year. Why would that be? My guess is that there are many individuals in various countries who see their fellow-citizens as sheep, mechanically and unquestioningly going along with the dominant ideology (consumerism, for example), and doing whatever the government tells them to do. Or simply what everyone else is doing. They find this alienating, even repugnant, and so a movie based on the theme of escape from “sheepdom” is inevitably going to attract them. The fact is that rational thinking, when first encountered, comes as something of a shock. It is irresistible, even overwhelming, and once you are exposed to it you cannot easily forget it, and return to a state of “innocence.” Arthur Koestler gave the classic description of this type of awakening that happened to him when he came across Marxism as a critique of capitalist society: light, he wrote, seemed to pour across my skull; everything suddenly fell into place. All was clear now; everything made sense. Of course, years later he realized that Marxism was just another form of tribalism, after which, with the same intensity, he fell into the tribalism of anti-Marxism. Toward the end of his life, he declared that the curse of humanity was “devotion”—addiction to causes, i.e., memes.(4)

The metaphor of light is no accident. In Book VII of The Republic, Plato describes most people as living in shadows, in a cave, confusing the shadows on the wall with reality. Only a few manage to break through, to discover that the shadows are images thrown on the wall of the cave by a light coming from behind. These few then emerge from the cave into the light, get accustomed to it, and start to explore it. In so doing, they rise up the “noetic line” of awakening, until they attain the status of “philosopher-kings.” And awakening lies at the core of axiality: you see the light—critical reasoning—and leave tribal consciousness behind.

As it turns out, not quite. The problem (one of them, anyway) is that things are not that clear-cut. It seems that there is a dialectical relationship between tribal consciousness and rationality. They need each other, they define each other, and this is why the conflict is never-ending. Neither side is willing, or really, able, to give up its hold on the human mind. There are layers of meaning here; it’s not all black and white. In order to get a more accurate picture, we need to consider the following:

1.Critiques of Jaspers, and the concept of an Axial Age 2.The evolution of mind, as delineated by sociologist Robert Bellah and psychologist Merlin Donald 3.The dialectical relationship between tribalism and axiality

Critiques of Jaspers and the concept of an Axial Age are quite extensive, and often fairly insightful. The question we shall have to ask ourselves is whether, after the dust settles, the concept has any validity, and if so, to what extent.(5) To begin with, both the philosopher Charles Taylor and the Egyptologist Jan Assmann fault the theory for its apparent assumption that there is a universal history, a single trajectory for mankind to follow: one Truth, one Mankind. In other words, it assumes that there is a single path, running from tradition to modernity, with the latter regarded as superior. According to this theory, during the period 800-200 B.C. the human race broke through to this Truth (second-order thinking); but, says Jaspers, it didn’t really “take” in a major or conclusive way. Rather, the tendency was to chronically lapse back into pre-axiality. It's as though the West, with its particular (and narrow) definition of progress, is waiting for everyone else to “grow up” (the easterners Buddha and Confucius notwithstanding). In contrast to this assumption, Taylor argues that there are a variety of fundamentally different civilizational patterns of development, while Assmann adds that different civilizations have different turning points in their history. All of this generates a much more complex, and nonlinear, picture. Assmann concedes that there certainly is such a thing as axiality, but argues that there wasn’t an Axial Age as such.

In addition, the larger point Assmann is making is that the notion of an Axial Age is part of the theory of modernization, which is typically blind to the cultural achievements of stabilization and continuity. In that framework, he says, tradition and cultural memory are devalued; they appear merely as factors of regression or even stagnation—a very biased way of reading history.

Another problem with the theory: it is too rigid. Various civilizations exhibit degrees of axiality, and in fact elements of axiality can be shown to predate 800 B.C. Thus we have, for example, the Code of Hammurabi (an anthology of legal situations) in Mesopotamia by the eighteenth century B.C. And Mesopotamia accomplished quite a lot in the fields of political organization, statecraft, literature, astronomy, mathematics, and even historiography; and this is but one example. (The case of Akhenaten, the fourteenth-century Egyptian pharaoh, is obviously another one, as he attempted to shift Egyptian religion from polytheism to monotheism.) As Assmann says, it’s not all or nothing. Jaspers was a bit blind to the axiality that existed in nonaxial civilizations, and which existed prior to the first millennium B.C.(6)

I want to return to this discussion in a moment, but first let me say a few words about point #2, the critique of Professors Bellah and Donald. To me, this gets down to the nitty-gritty of it all. As far as the evolution of the brain, and cognitive development, goes, there is, Donald says, a kind of “layering phenomenon” of successive evolutionary stages, whereby the human race went from the Mimetic to the Mythic to the Theoretic. These three stages are categories of memory representation, and—the crucial point—they don’t replace each other. Rather, they just accumulate. Mimesis consists of imitation and repetition, and is the basis of crafts, dance, music, and tool use. This capacity is hard-wired into the brain; it goes back 4 million years. The Mythic phase is also hard-wired, although it goes back only 300,000 or 400,000 years, and it consists of speech and storytelling; narrative, in a word. It includes stories of origin, legends, allegories, and so on. And finally, with Theoretic culture, which eventually included axiality, we get writing systems, symbolic representation, analysis and reflection. In terms of evolution, this phase is not hard-wired. It is relatively recent, and has a cultural basis rather than a biological one. As a result—as Jaspers said—its hold on us is a bit iffy, rather tenuous.(7)

The crucial point here is that the modern mind is a mixture of all three of these modes, or capacities; there was really no “replacement” of one mode of consciousness by another. For we still dance, and sing, and we still tell stories, generate myths and narratives—in fact, we do both all the time. And if our mythologies are not religious, then they are secular (modern ideologies). True, analytic thinking can do things that the other two modes can’t, but these latter two “domains,” says Donald, are nevertheless

"extremely subtle and powerful ways of thinking. They cannot be matched by analytic thought for intuitive speed, complexity, and shrewdness. They will continue to be crucially important in the future, because they reside in innate capacities without which human beings could not function."

(Elsewhere I have referred to this mode of consciousness as “ontological knowing”—from the Greek word ontos, being—as distinct from intellectual knowing.)

Robert Bellah drives this point home with great clarity and incisiveness when he writes that narrative

"is more than [just] literature; it is the way we understand our lives. If literature merely supplied entertainment, then it wouldn’t be as important as it is. Great literature speaks to the deepest level of our humanity; it helps us better understand who we are. Narrative is not only the way we understand our personal and collective identities; it is the source of our ethics, our politics and our religion. It…isn’t irrational—it can be criticized by rational argument—but it can’t be derived from reason alone. Mythic (narrative) culture is not a subset of theoretic culture, nor will it ever be. It is older than theoretic culture and remains to this day an indispensable way of relating to the world." [Italics mine]

So much for Western notions of “progress,” which are narrow, limited, and superficial. The axial way of thinking, of knowing the world, is indispensable for the functioning of modern societies, but it is only a way of knowing the world; and although we cannot live without it, it may not be the most profound.

To return to our earlier discussion (point #1), we need to note that there is a class bias involved in the emergence of axiality. Donald’s Theoretic mode, second-order thinking, is mostly the province or territory of an intellectual elite—the Op-Ed crowd at the New York Times, for example. Today and yesterday, the majority of the population, worldwide, lives in the Mythic mode—Plato’s shadows. The average person is not a philosopher, and for him or her, what is right in front of them is what’s real. Nations vary, of course, but in the United States, it’s a good bet that more than 90 percent of the population would not be able to say what a metaphor is. Jaspers was right; for the most part, axiality never really “took,” at least not for the greater part of humanity. As I’ll indicate below, this has serious repercussions for our present situation.

Turning to point #3, I would argue that although tribalism and rationalism are two distinct ways of being, they are nevertheless entwined in a dialectical relationship. As already noted, they define each other, and this dialectic has never really gone away, as the biblical scholar Arvin Kapelrud points out (Baal was the Canaanite god of fertility and storms):

"[T]he relationship between Yahweh and Baal was a matter of central importance; and if we do not take account of this we get a distorted picture of the history of Israel’s religion. Although in the end Yahweh triumphed over His opponent, we ought, nevertheless, not to underestimate Baal’s importance. The conflict between Yahweh and Baal was more than an incidental historical episode. It was a conflict between [two] principles and interpretations of life which in other forms is still being waged today."(8) [Italics mine]

It would seem to be an eternal psychological dynamic. Applying the concept of axiality to contemporary American politics, for example, what do we find? The current violent divide in the United States, politically speaking, strikes me as being ultimately rooted in the archaic conflict between tribalism and rationalism. Millions adore an intellect-hater and fact-denier like Donald Trump, whose followers have no use for critical analysis and who are steeped in a tribal, Trumpian mythology. The “bubbas” who wear MAGA hats despise the New York Times, and what it stands for—the pointy-headed intellectuals who look down on them (“a basket of deplorables,” per Hillary Clinton). There is ominous talk of civil war, with 25 percent of the population endorsing violence against the government, as was evident on 6 January 2021, when a mob of Trumpites stormed the Capitol Building in Washington DC, in the tribal and misguided belief that Joe Biden stole the election from Trump.

A related example: If you know how to look at them, the presidential debates of 2016 are a perfect illustration of this conflict. Hillary Clinton was depending on fact and evidence to win the debate, and as a result came off as scripted and boring. Her opponent hadn’t bothered to prepare for the event; his weapons were mimesis (body language) and tribal mythology (invented scenarios, rhetoric, dramatic emotional expressions, and so on). At one point he even referred to Hillary as “nasty.” The result? He pretty much wiped the floor with her. As Merlin Donald tells us, this mode “cannot be matched by analytic thought for intuitive speed, complexity, and shrewdness.”

In any case, those on the axial side of this conflict are for the most part capable of critical analysis, but a rather large percentage of them have gone off the rails, channeled it into a strange place of “woke” ideology, where the focus of attention is on political correctness—an abuse of critical thinking, in my view, and a movement that has created its own form of tribalism. But the point being made here is that the axial issue is, it seems to me, a potentially fruitful way of framing the heated political conflict that is currently engulfing the American body politic. My guess is that this mode of analysis can be applied to other countries as well, such as Brazil, or Israel. The struggles going on in the US and these nations can, I believe, be seen as having their origins in the fundamental conflict between a tribal way of life and consciousness and an axial one; and the conflict, which is existential, would seem to be never-ending. With Trump, tribalism may eventually triumph in America; but the rational opposition to him will not simply go away. Many Israelis regard the Palestinians as a variety of savages, “human animals,” as the Israeli Defense Minister put it (October 2023), whereas the Palestinians view someone like Benjamin Netanyahu, with his desire to destroy Gaza, as a monster, a war criminal. It should not surprise us that there is no resolution in sight. As for Brazil, consider the contrast between Bolsonaro and Lula, and what each of them stands for. This mode of analysis may seem far-fetched; personally, I’m guessing that it contains more than a kernel of truth. At the very least, it seems to me to be heuristically valuable.(9)

Truth be told, the issue of an Axial Age never got resolved. Everyone agrees that axiality exists in a psychological or mental sense, and that we can investigate the degree of it in various societies, on a comparative basis. But did it exist historically? Was Jaspers right about there being a specific Axial Age that can be identified with the period 800-200 B.C.? On that score, opinion remains divided. There are eminent historians on both sides of the argument. Personally, I agree with the critiques discussed above, regarding modernization bias, class bias, and the problem of ignoring the vibrancy of other capacities of the human mind. But at the end of the day, I think Jaspers got it pretty much right: this period was a turning point in the evolution of human consciousness, and the sages he identifies as agents of the change were sui generis. Of course, they were not acting alone; I am not proposing a heroic version of history, and it’s a good bet that they were the products of deep-seated changes going on in Greece, India, China, and the Levant. But they may, perhaps, be likened to Hegel’s “world historical individuals,” who changed their societies because they epitomized changes that were already underway. It is rather amazing that this occurred across the board, in the absence of practically any cross-cultural influence. Once again, we might draw on Hegel for the notion of a weltgeist, sweeping across the globe in the space of a few centuries, and seemingly coming out of nowhere. Whatever the cause, this much is certain: the human race hasn’t been the same ever since.

©Morris Berman, 2023

Notes
1.“Tribal Consciousness and Enlightenment Tradition,” in A Question of Values (Charleston SC: CreateSpace, 2010).
2.See also another essay of mine, “The Hula Hoop Theory of History,” CounterPunch, 11 January 2013.
3.Karl Jaspers, The Origin and Goal of History (London: Routledge, 1953; orig. German edition 1949).
4.Morris Berman, Eminent Post-Victorians (Independently published, 2022), pp. 67-79. See also Raymond Aron, The Opium of the Intellectuals (London: Routledge, 1957; orig. French ed. 1955).
5.In the discussion that follows I am borrowing liberally from Appendix III of my book Neurotic Beauty (Healdsburg CA: Water Street Press, 2019).
6.For additional critiques see Daniel Hoyer and Jenny Reddish, Seshat History of the Axial Age (Chaplin CT: Beresta Books, 2019); Ken Baskin and Dmitri Bodarenko, The Axial Ages of World History: Lessons for the 21st Century (ISCE Publishing, 2014); Iain Provan, Convenient Myths: The Axial Age, Dark Green Religion, and the World that Never Was (Waco TX: Baylor University Press, 2013); and Antony Black, “The ‘Axial Period’: What Was It and What Does It Signify?,” published online by Cambridge University Press, 15 February 2008. Regarding the Code of Hammurabi: according to two scholars of Canaanite (Ugaritic) literature, the adjudication of legal cases, particularly those involving widows and orphans, “was the ordinary task of elders and rulers in ancient Near Eastern societies.” This goes back to ca. 3,000 B.C., i.e., 1,200 years before the Mesopotamian Code. See Michael Coogan and Mark Smith, eds. and trans., Stories from Ancient Canaan (2d. ed.; Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012), pp. 27-28.
7.This section and what follows are also taken from Appendix III of Neurotic Beauty.
8.Arvid S. Kapelrud, The Ras Shamra Discoveries and the Old Testament, trans. G.W. Anderson (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963), pp. 55-56. Kapelrud’s assertion that we are talking about two distinct principles and interpretations of life is one that is supported by a number of scholars of axiality, notably S.N. Eisenstadt in his edited volume, The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilisations (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986). These scholars refer to the shift as “the transcendentalist breakthrough.” Eisenstadt defines it (according to Alan Strathern) as the “erection of two sharply distinguished orders of reality and modes of behaviour,” which he (Strathern) regards as “a powerful way of lending coherence to the apparently disparate ancient philosophies.” See Alan Strathern, “Karen Armstrong’s Axial Age: Origins and Ethics,” The Heythrop Journal, vol. 50 no. 2 (February 2009), pp. 293-99.
9.I am not the first historian to suggest this kind of long-range influence. The biblical scholar Baruch Halpern makes a somewhat similar argument in his book From Gods to God: The Dynamics of Iron Age Cosmologies (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009). Halpern accepts Jaspers’ thesis about an Axial Age, including (unfortunately) the Western bias and modernization theory criticized by Jan Assmann, above. But leaving that aside, Halpern argues for a similarity between the axial shift that took place in ancient Israel (which gave birth to monotheism), and the cultural and intellectual shifts that took place across Europe during 1500-1800; which is to say, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. But not just a similarity; rather, some type of connection, or influence. This is not a causal connection rippling down through the centuries, but only an argument that there is a psychological or mental pattern here that gets repeated; what Kapelrud is saying, in effect. In such a framework, I don’t feel that this is far-fetched, although Nathan MacDonald, in a lengthy review of Halpern’s book, does, and he offers a plausible critique. Clearly, the jury is out on all of this. See Nathan MacDonald, “Making the Past Present,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, vol. 11 (2011).

193 comments:

  1. Wafers-

    I know we're on a break, but I can't resist quoting from Ahad Ha'am, pen name of Asher Ginzberg (1856-1927), Jewish philosopher and journalist who had this to say in the 1920s (his pseudonym means "one of the people"):

    -"[The Arab Palestinians] have a genuine right to the land due to generations of residence and work upon it. For them too this country is a national home and they have the right to develop their national potentialities to the utmost.”

    -“We are used to thinking of the Arabs as primitive men of the desert, as a donkey-like nation that neither sees nor understands what is going around it. But this is a GREAT ERROR. The Arab, like all sons of Sham, has sharp and crafty mind . . . Should time come when life of our people in Palestine imposes to a smaller or greater extent on the natives, they WILL NOT easily step aside.”

    -"[The Zionist pioneers believed that] the only language the Arabs understand is that of force ..... [They] behave towards the Arabs with hostility and cruelty, trespass unjustly upon their boundaries, beat them shamefully without reason and even brag about it, and nobody stands to check this contemptible and dangerous tendency."

    And he wrote this 100 years ago!

    mb

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  2. I enjoyed your essay even though I am woefully ignorant of the subject matter. The scope of your scholarship is overwhelming.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Grainey-

    Perhaps you cd share w/us whatever came to mind, thoughts you had after rdg it.

    mb

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  4. Well. Some of the thoughts that came to my mind had to do with fanaticism. It's so difficult to avoid being lured into it. The example you gave of Arthur Koestler's feeling of enlightenment when he read Marx only to later realize that Marxism was another form of tribalism leads me to wonder if it's possible to avoid this pitfall. Why can't people benefit from Marx's insights without becoming fanatics?

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  5. Grainey-

    I think I answer your question in my book "Healing."

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  6. Callousness marches on in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U. S. A.!
    https://www.wapt.com/article/pearl-woman-pleads-guilty-to-capital-murder-in-death-of-her-baby/45757057

    Here’s today’s mugshot of your typical unconscionable sexual predator USAin:
    https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/crime/woman-shares-decades-sexual-abuse-moms-boyfriend-sentenced-20-years-prison/277-0dcd2bac-ae2f-452c-b1d1-d00fe55de860

    Here’s a grandson’s “love” for his grandmother:
    https://lawandcrime.com/crime/she-didnt-deserve-what-was-done-to-her-grandson-allegedly-ditched-grandmothers-chopped-off-head-on-side-of-creek/

    And here’s the parents’ “love” for their disabled child:
    https://www.al.com/news/2023/11/parents-of-disabled-alabama-teen-found-in-backyard-freezer-charged-in-his-death.html

    I mean, Does this shit happen in other countries? Or is this country truly "exceptional"?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Joe-

    Regarding yr 2nd link. I'm guessing that w/in 5 yrs, if some beheading shd occur, the guy will take the head w/him to use as a bowling ball. We aren't quite there yet, but almost.

    mb

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  8. Wafers-

    So here's my prediction:
    1. Trumpi will go to jail.
    2. He will defeat Schmiden in the 2024 election.
    3. He will undo all of the DOJ convictions against him, let himself outta jail, pardon the insurrectionists of Jan. 6, 2021, and go after all those people who opposed him. The belief that the 2020 election was stolen from him will be canonized.
    4. He will roll up his sleeves, and polish off the country once and for all. There won't be much left of the US by 2028. He may just declare himself president for life.
    5. But, he won't cultivate stupid, violent wars, or threaten countries like Russia and China.
    6. It wd also be great if he stuck Kamala's head in a toilet, and shut down the NYT. (A man can dream.)

    mb

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  9. The unvarnished truth:

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/07/palestinians-human-rights-israel-gaza

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  10. Bruce Scofield12:15 PM

    Good article. The Axial Age concept, I agree, is useful. Certainly something happened during the 6th century when a few individuals founded new perspectives - different ways of thinking that others who followed then expanded and developed. But this period, which was cold and dry and very unstable politically, may not just mark the emergence of rational thought, though that was the case in the Greek world. It also marked the foundations of Asian thought that was less objectivist, but still marks a revolution in understanding the world and has to be considered when thinking about those cultures today. I would see Axial thought in general as marking a stage in the evolution of a better understanding of reality, which human civilization must constantly improve upon to survive.

    Greek thought at the time, basically early science, seems to me to be the most rational of the Axial Age (though Taoism comes close) and it required social collaboration and verifiable checks on reality using close observation and logic. Because this perspective takes place on a social systems level created and sustained by the participation of multiple individuals, it is not something embedded in the brain (and not necessarily a meme) but more of a methodology.

    Right – there is a never-ending conflict. Axial thinking fights the deeper, hard-wired response behavior routines of tribalism. Over millions of years the struggle of primate kinship groups to survive developed a kind of social immune system and the us vs them response, as Robert Sapolsky has elaborated on, is apparently hardwired. It may take 100k years or way more for rational responses to stick in the brain and become more automatic – but only if it turns out this serves as a successful survival response. When externalities become challenging and stressful, like too many strange people and a dwindling of resources, there would naturally be a reversion to the automatic tribal responses built into the brain – and then out comes the hate and paranoia. This seems to call for consciousness raising, but exactly what type is another matter as Axial thinking, as you have pointed out a long time ago, has its dark side.

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  11. Bruce-

    Jesus, man, long time no hear. How r.u. doing, and what r.u. up2? Write me at mauricio@morrisberman.com, por favor.

    mb

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  12. It's in the cards:

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/10/china/china-xi-jinping-world-order-intl-hnk/index.html

    Not that hard to eclipse a bozo country that makes all the wrong decisions, and is filled w/buffoons.

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  13. Callousness marches on in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U. S. A.! With the cruelty that goes on in this violent shithole of a country, there should be a newspaper called “The Daily Callousness”. Here could be a few of the main stories:
    1) Our so called “intelligence” couldn’t get it right with the Iranian Revolution, the implosion of the U.S.S.R., 9-11, the first World Trade Center bombing, and various other things. But their employees, their “secret agent men”, are highly skilled at sexually abusing women globally.
    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-cia-officer-pleads-guilty-drugging-sexually-abusing-women-rcna124102

    2) A cruel stepmom.
    https://meaww.com/who-is-analiz-osceola-woman-found-guilty-of-fatally-beating-three-year-old-stepson-to-death-in-2015

    3) A cruel high school teacher.
    https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/seckinger-high-school-teacher-arrested-over-the-weekend-for-2020-murder-of-2-year-old

    4) On the flip side, someone who’s upset with the high school staff runs them over!
    https://www.mysuncoast.com/2023/11/07/port-charlotte-woman-arrested-attempting-run-over-school-staff-member/

    5) And even charities aren’t immune from angry, callous freeloaders who don’t get enough.
    https://lawandcrime.com/crime/im-setting-the-salvation-army-on-fire-man-who-received-charitys-services-seems-proud-after-allegedly-setting-its-building-ablaze-damaging-iconic-red-kettles/

    "Americans are always bragging they’re #1. They’re #1 in misery. Get out now.” -GSWH

    ReplyDelete
  14. Joe-

    Watch length. Thanks.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  15. Mohamed Ali8:20 PM

    I found this video on YouTube. It’s from Vice about hyperinflation in Argentina and how citizens are living through it. Inflation is almost 100 percent. Argentina is in this situation because the government was spending more money than they were bringing in. America is doing the same thing. This is our future.
    https://youtu.be/Q3FGZTN9rwk?si=1qMM4SJv_W4-dFlt

    ReplyDelete
  16. Satchmo9:31 PM

    Someone in Grand Rapids, MI got a nasty letter in their mailbox upon moving in. You gotta be pretty miserable to send something of this nature to a complete stranger, eh?

    https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/local/grand-rapids-west/woman-finds-unwelcoming-note-in-mailbox-after-moving-to-new-neighborhood/69-5a9480d9-d3a9-4f21-a79c-e3456a0ab149

    ReplyDelete
  17. Waferinos-

    Well, it's clear now that in addition to being a senile doofus, Schmiden is a warmonger and a war criminal. He represents the attempt of the Global North to hang on to its dominance over the Global South. But the tide is turning; fighting History is a futile endeavor. Of course, the Hamas massacre of the Be'eri kibbutz is an unjustifiable horror; but as Hegel once put it, History is a slaughter-bench. This is the sad, awful truth; it typically happens when tectonic plates, so to speak, are shifting. I agree with those protesters who are saying that the uprising against Israel is part of a global anti-colonialist movement. Since 1945, the US has had nearly free reign to run the world in its favor. It was a stupid foreign policy, hugely self-destructive, and now the chickens are coming home to roost. Its hegemony is being eclipsed, and Russia, China, India, and the Islamic nations are going to have their turn at fucking things up. I'm guessing they probably will.

    For a better (if unlikely) alternative, check out the 2nd story in my collection, "The Heart of the Matter." I find it puzzling, that the world doesn't listen to me, but what can ya do, really?

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  18. ps: I'm still waiting to hear from Gisele Bundchen, Tulsi, Sarah Palin, and Lauren Boebert--cutting-edge intellectual women who deserve to be in the W.H., steering the country toward greatness.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Megan5:33 AM

    Nice essay, Dr. Berman, I enjoyed reading it. You make a lot of interesting points and observations that gave me some good food for thought.

    At any rate, I just stumbled on this, and it is probably the most astute and insightful take that I've come across with regard to Israel/Palestine. A really fresh psychological perspective. I don't you could get more to the heart of the matter than this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIF6YB0upHk

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CekIfKX70iU (His observation that one of Israel's founding myths--the Masada--i.e., that of suicide, which he compares to Hamas' suicidal charter, is a pretty interesting insight. He goes on to call Hamas and Israel "two victimhood movements.")

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfWuNKOsng8&t=3042s (There is some repeat stuff in this one, like the last, but I found it had enough that was new and interesting to make it worth watching.)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Megan-

    Edward Said, who was a Palestinian, said that the Pals were "the victims of the victims." Anyway, I think Vaknin is rt, that this is a fight to the finish. The various 'solutions' that have been proposed are all bunk.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  21. Bruno Latour on Anna Tsing’s The Mushroom at the End of the World: "It would be a euphemism to say this book is not anthropocentric — it places humanity on another orbit."

    https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/bruno-latour-on-anna-tsings-the-mushroom-at-the-end-of-the-world/

    Latour reviews Tsing's book on the biology 9f mushrooms as a metaphor for the end of capitalism.. looks like a cool book! Ursula Le Guin wrote a new review abt how the book nicely breaks down the ecological crisis and how capitalism is at blame.

    Have you read much Latour MB? And would you recommend any of of his writings?

    I just finished your newest book, found it quite magical... Thanks for the wide-ranging literature over the years and for facilitating this forum....

    Best

    Clay

    ReplyDelete
  22. Clay-

    We cd use a link for the Le Guin review, por favor. Never read Latour, only discussions of his work; long time ago. Here's the link for Tsing:

    https://www.amazon.com/Mushroom-End-World-Possibility-Capitalist/dp/0691220557/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1DIIUBQ3U6W4X&keywords=anna+tsing+mushroom+at+the+end+of+the+world&qid=1699662229&s=books&sprefix=anna+tsing%2Cstripbooks%2C568&sr=1-1

    The typical American is like a mushroom: the gov't keeps him in the dark, and feeds him shit.

    Glad u liked my latest bk, except that I have 2 latest bks. Healing, or Russia?

    abrazos, chico-
    mb

    ReplyDelete
  23. Today’s stories for “The Daily Callousness” here in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.! 1) A “mom” throws her infant son on the floor, kills him, and then takes a nap. But it gets better. She hustles and starts a GoFundMe. 2) A bum ( today’s mugshot) kills his girlfriend and “ditches” her in a ditch. 3) Another “loving mother” blows away her two sons. As Whoopie Goldberg on The View likes to say, “Take a look.”

    https://fox28savannah.com/news/nation-world/woman-arrested-for-7-month-old-infants-murder-amarillo-texas-police-department-homicide-angel-varner-3200-center-street-detectives-potter-county-jail
    https://abcnews4.com/news/nation-world/woman-accused-of-killing-infant-son-appears-to-have-started-gofundme-for-his-funeral-expenses
    https://lawandcrime.com/live-trials/live-trials-current/iowa-man-who-allegedly-left-ex-lover-dead-in-a-frozen-ditch-heads-to-trial-for-murder-charge/
    https://www.thedailybeast.com/pure-evil-kentucky-mom-tiffanie-lucas-accused-of-killing-her-sons

    ReplyDelete
  24. House of Rep = collection of sick assholes:

    https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-11-10/rashida-tlaib-congress-censure-israel-palestine-biden-gaza

    ReplyDelete
  25. Joe-

    She probably was a bit tired after killing her baby, and so needed to take a nap. Understandable.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  26. Anjin-san9:54 AM

    Years ago I read something that has stuck in my mind ever since, "We read the world wrong and say it deceives us".

    Micheal Hudson is someone who reads the world better than me and helps me see it clearly.

    His analysis of America's manipulation of Europe is clear and concise. Of particular interest to readers of the blog will be his advice to Europeans to leave Europe to move to Russia or China as Europe will become a dead zone (at 22:30). Echos of the GSWH's advice to Americans.

    Another highlight is the stupidity of American policy to China and its devastating effect on the American economy. It's not just shooting yourself in the foot, more like shooting yourself in the head!

    https://youtu.be/rPib_bhpwJk?si=EVbRL0FWOWHGIT7G

    ReplyDelete
  27. Wafers-

    As time goes on, it becomes increasingly obvious that the US, and Israel, are on the wrong side of History.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  28. Satchmo6:58 PM

    It’s almost time 4 the Black Friday beatdowns. I think the stores oughta turn these brawls into WWE-style pay-per-view events. Then they can rake in even MORE dough from these fools

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ8RPijAIeg

    ReplyDelete
  29. Don’t believe those fog-of-war pronouncements in mainstream media about how the Israeli Defense Forces are valiantly rooting out those Hamas terrorists from their tunnels in Gaza. Look at officially released video clips: Israeli soldiers aren’t leaving their armored vehicles (kinda hard to clear a tunnel while riding in a tank). Instead, they’re using NATO-patented bomb-em-back-to-stone-age airpower tactics to bomb and level sections of Gaza city while tanks fire on hospitals and residential buildings, and bulldozers clear swaths so nobody can think of coming back. The real objective is a combo of ethnic genocide and cleansing, killing those who won’t/can’t leave. But Secretary of State Blinken says too many Pals have died. How many is “too many”? Wafers are encouraged to weigh in on what exactly is the Blinken Ratio ™ implied by his disgusting handwaving.

    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/blinken-says-far-too-many-palestinians-have-been-killed-in-gaza/3050126

    https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-111023-israel-economy-buckles

    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/links-11-11-2023.html

    ReplyDelete
  30. Satch-

    Check out 2nd story in my collection, "The Heart of the Matter."

    Jack-

    Last 2 links didn't work, for me. Are you going to post the item abt IDF T-shirts?

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  31. ps: Blinken (Blinkered) is a complete jackass, and an appropriate spokesperson for Schmiden and the US Gov't. What a buffoon.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Wafers-

    The home residence of the Vice President is Number One Observatory Circle, in NW DC. I think it is time for us to descend on this residence, and stand outside it, holding a banner that says

    KAMALA IS A RANCID BAG OF DOUCHE FLUID

    Then, after a couple of days, we move on to the White House, with a banner that says

    SCHMIDEN IS A GENOCIDAL DOOFUS

    What do ya say?

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  33. A few words of ancient wisdom:

    https://www.noemamag.com/a-daoist-take-on-the-world-gone-sideways/

    Let me add that just as History is punishing the US for what it did to the world, so will it also punish Israel. But both countries are too blockheaded to see it.

    ReplyDelete
  34. MB & Wafers, the correct links for my post yesterday about the war in Gaza are below. On the Naked Capitalism link, page down in the comments for XXYY at 4:26 pm suggesting the Blinken Ratio ™ for dead Pals:

    https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-111023-israeli-economy-buckles

    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/links-11-11-2023

    The dehumanization of Palestinians by the Israeli Defence Forces is really nothing new. Here’s a report with photo by the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald from March 25, 2009 on Israeli soldiers wearing T-shirts with messages like “1 Shot 2 Kills” with a pregnant woman in crosshairs:

    https://www.smh.com.au/world/wardrobe-malfunction-as-soldiers-go-dressed-to-kill-20090324-98vo.html

    ReplyDelete
  35. MB - Thank you so much for your essay, it has provided a great deal for my mind to chew on. I'm thinking of re-reading Wandering God.

    I enjoyed this video of Michael Hudson providing his thoughts on Israel and the current geopolitical disposition. He especially has some interesting thoughts about Rome and The Crusades being analogous to how the U.S. behaving in the middle-east (see at about 44:00). If what he is saying is true, the U.S. won't do a thing to stop the massacre of Palestinians (instead it's hoping for an opportunity to attack Iran). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AeAfFfTqMk

    Jim

    ReplyDelete
  36. Jim-

    For Netanyahu and Schmiden, the Pals are little more than human garbage, untermenschen, to be disposed of at will. These guys are war criminals; they have no conscience at all.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  37. Mr. Oops2:22 PM

    Dr. Berman—

    Taking a break from seeing videos of wounded and dead Palestinian children, I bumped into a study of The State of Democracy in the United States: 2022 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China. It's a numbered checklist of disaster and decline, but its Conclusion sounds nothing like what you would hear from any politician in the western bloc countries. It talks about working in solidarity, taking into account ones' own shortcomings and not pointing fingers. A sample:

    "What our world needs today is not a “Summit for Democracy” that hypes up confrontation and contributes nothing to the collective response to global challenges, but a conference of solidarity that focuses on taking real actions to solve prominent global challenges."

    What they say?!?

    https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjdt_665385/2649_665393/202303/t20230320_11044481.html

    ReplyDelete
  38. Oops-

    Why is China slowly gaining the upper hand over America? One possible reason: while America is filled w/moronic buffoons, China is filled with reasonably intelligent people. Hmm...

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  39. James Allen4:24 PM

    If this doesn’t stray too far from the general blog theme, might I offer the following evidence for why the country is doomed:

    “Teachers Yelling at Students #1-10.” YouTube. American youth driving teachers to distraction, unable to be either controlled or intimidated.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Now this is utterly hilarious. The January 6th shaman is running for Congress! Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha! This country certainly is the laughing stock of the world! Ha!Ha!Ha! Who knows? Perhaps if Don the Con doesn’t get to be president for life, this goofball maybe one day can be our commander in chief! Ha!Ha!Ha!

    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2023/11/13/qanon-shaman/5971699896326/

    U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U. S. A.!

    ReplyDelete
  41. Joe-

    I'd vote for him. He cdn't be worse than Schmiden.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  42. This is kinda nice (portrait of the real America):

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/13/las-vegas-teen-beaten-death-mob-school

    ReplyDelete
  43. Wafers-

    It's very possible that less than a yr from now, the American people, in their infinite wisdom, will flush Schmiden down the toilet once and for all. Of course, a Trump presidency will be a horror show:

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/14/politics/trump-extreme-rhetoric-analysis/index.html

    but with one saving grace: we will finally be rid of a genocidal doofus, a warmongering idiot of the first order. And Kamala Schmamala will no longer grace us w/her inappropriate laughter, and her inability to engage in rational dialogue--permanent retirement for a total buffoonette. Don't kid yourself, my friends; these are no small gains.

    But who, you might ask, will guide us during this final phase of the American empire? Gisele Bundchen? Tulsi? Sarah Palin? I am excited at the prospects.

    O&D, amigos. We pull away from one abyss, only to be facing another.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  44. Flyingspaghettimonstr1:00 PM

    Ever heard of the phenomenon of Amerikkkans embarking on "medical tourism"? This is the practice of traveling 2 other countries for healthcare. Amerikkkans love sitting on their lard asses belittling the medical systems of other countries. But if they're looking elsewhere for healthcare, then that means something's terribly amiss w/ their own.

    https://www.npr.org/2023/03/08/1161888974/medical-tourism-mexico-americans

    ReplyDelete
  45. Wafers-

    A short quiz. Between now and 2030, America will come tumbling down. Our economy will be shot, our military in tatters, and other nations of the world will not take us seriously anymore. What will American citizens do, as a reaction to all this?

    1. Reflect on the nature of karma, on how much damage we have done to ourselves and the world, and thus reject the American Dream as a cruel joke. Reject the violence of American imperialism, and the stupidity of consumerism and capitalism.

    2. Run around waving the American flag, yelling "We're No. 1!"

    But I do have a possible scenario in mind. Some Americans will gather outside of Schmiden's house (no longer the W.H.), and yell "Schmiden! Doofus! War criminal!" When he steps out of his house, the crowds will projectile vomit on him.

    Meanwhile, a similar crowd will gather outside of Kamala's house, yelling "Kamala! Schmamala! Total imbecile!" When she steps out of her house, they will throw stones at her, and pee on her shoes.

    We live in exciting times, amigos.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  46. “Don’t hit me in the back!“ “Now, Children, Children.”
    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2023/11/14/burchett-kevin-mccarthy-elbow-gaetz/6461699996873/
    https://apnews.com/video/united-states-senate-sean-obrien-markwayne-mullin-national-national-dff91b6bde9348b49a05763e9e472afe

    Ha!Ha!Ha! Grown members of Congress acting like 12 year olds. The Republican Comedy Show rolls on. The fall of the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U. S. A.!, like Rome, now probably will include bread-and-circus gladiator matches. An angry red state “tough guy” ex-ultimate fighter now is an elected senator. It doesn’t get any dumber ( or funnier). LOL!

    U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U. S. A.!

    ReplyDelete
  47. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-allies-screening-over-50-000-foot-soldiers-for-power-grab-never-seen-before/ar-AA1jVmLW?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=8b1fc077242a408f8fa413912a48b954&ei=2

    This is rather scary in a way. It seems the Heritage Foundation is already screening thousands of people to take over various government jobs and positions if Trump gets elected again. This so much reminds me of the brownshirts in Germany.

    ReplyDelete
  48. BH-

    The collapse of the US can follow a # of different scenarios, something we have discussed b4 (secession, for example). The Heritage scenario is, in fact, fascism.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  49. David Samson9:09 AM

    Have you thought about doing a substack? Many former bloggers have been doing this, such as Curtis Yarvin:

    Gray Mirror (Curtis Yarvin aka Mencius Moldbug

    You could serialize your books & charge $10 a month. Many journalists started doing this years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Spaghetti- If you point out that contradiction to people from the US they immediately get angry and defensive, and start spouting things like "at least we have freedom." Which brings up another contradiction: Americans constantly talk about their freedom, but they have the highest incarceration rate in the world. And after U.S. prisoners serve their time they are denied many basic freedoms (employment and voting, for example).


    https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/incarceration-rates-by-country

    https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/01/16/percent-incarcerated/#:~:text=We%E2%80%99re%20often%20asked%20what%20percent%20of%20the%20U.S.,a%20federal%20or%20state%20prison%20or%20local%20jail.

    ReplyDelete
  51. This American Life:

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-11-15/a-16-year-old-girl-was-viciously-beaten-at-baldwin-park-high-school-a-security-guard-is-accused-of-watching

    ReplyDelete
  52. Scumbags kowtowing to moneybags?

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/nyregion/columbia-university-ban-student-groups-israel-hamas-war.html

    ReplyDelete
  53. Ram Gana9:20 PM

    Very interesting article from Russell Dobular on the potential for the woke establishment's comeuppance:

    "These modern-day Dr. Frankensteins had apparently never considered what might happen were a 21st Century Wounded Knee to erupt in broad daylight on social media"

    https://duedissidence.substack.com/p/its-alive-social-justice-movement

    ReplyDelete
  54. Greetings MB and Wafers,

    Biden calls Xi a dictator after summit meeting:

    https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/biden-says-he-will-still-refer-to-xi-as-a-dictator-after-summit-197981765965

    Jesus, the US is a joke. Biden is literally a supporter of totalitarian regimes such as Saudi Arabia and essentially sanctioning the genocide of Palestinians by Israel. The good thing is that the US is being exposed like never before.

    Jeff

    ReplyDelete
  55. Jeff-

    Exposed, but probably not to Americans, who are unable to grasp the obvious. As for Schmiden: Jesus, what a jackass.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  56. BH, MB:

    Re: fascism,

    PRRI recently found four in ten Americans authoritarian preferences, he represents this country perfectly...

    A lot of Americans embrace Trump’s authoritarianism

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/10/lot-americans-embrace-trumps-authoritarianism/

    ReplyDelete
  57. Nico-

    No surprise. Buffoons Rule! Meanwhile, pls spell out yr acronyms, thank you.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  58. Great article on Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan (coward and scumbag), and "The Crucible" in Nov. 2 NYRB.

    ReplyDelete
  59. willy robinson6:52 AM

    I really enjoyed this article (although I must confess a lot of ignorance regarding the axial age mentioned).

    In terms of using the tools of this study to better understand our contemporary world, I invite you to revisit the Trump/Hillary election campaign not (or not just) in terms of tribalism versus rationalism, but instead in terms of the mimetic, the mythic and the theoretic (this, for me, is the most interesting part of the essay).

    One could argue, for example, that Hillary's campaign was extremely tribal, appealing (amongst other things) to an uncritical sisterhood to carry her to office, while failing to engage with more 'theoretical' voters who could see great inconsistencies between her words and actions on foreign policy, or how she broke the state department's own rules for emails and other communications. The big step she took once defeated (blame Russia) was pure narrative management, and contained very little analysis or critical thinking.

    If you felt like exploring this thread I would be very interested in what you have to say. Depressingly though, I fear the only one thing you are ever allowed to analyse as a philisophical voter in the US with a working brain is: which is the lesser of the two repugnant evils.

    ReplyDelete
  60. willy-

    As you can imagine, I didn't want to fill the essay w/Hillary, so I confined myself to an example of her debate w/Trumpi, wh/illustrates the power of the mimetic and mythic over the theoretic. He came across as vibrant, she came across as a boring wonk. Something similar happened in the 1st Bush-Gore debate of 2000. As for Axial Age, check out Appendix III of "Neurotic Beauty."

    french-

    Sorry, cdn't run it (length rule). Pls compress to half a pg and re-send. Thank you.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  61. They're trash, period:

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/19/opinion/rich-billionaires-philanthropy-covid.html

    ReplyDelete
  62. Krakhed9:03 PM

    I enjoyed your article. Tribalism seems to be on guiding a lot of us.

    https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2786516

    59% of 18-25 year olds are overweight or obese

    We are entering a new age of buffoonery where the Average American is a very fat person and also addicted to screens.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6449671/

    ReplyDelete
  63. Krak-

    American youth are indeed a sad lot--and our future. More worrisome than the fat on their bodies, is the fat between their ears.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  64. Dub alchemist6:41 AM

    You're not likely to see much hollering & protesting over this: some assisted living places are gouging its residents for every mundane task, like helping folks to the bathroom. Amerikkka's capitalist vulture economy in all its glory.

    https://news.yahoo.com/extra-fees-drive-assisted-living-163533841.html

    ReplyDelete
  65. Dub-

    Hustling is everywhere in America, I guess. A nation of vultures, as you say. But above all: buffoons.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  66. ps: History is punishing the US w/a vigor. When I think of what Americans have become, I hafta lie down for a couple of hours.

    ReplyDelete
  67. Wafers-

    Schmiden just pardoned turkeys. Was he himself included in that?

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  68. ps:

    https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-11-20/biden-israel-gaza-war-bombing-arab-world-united-nations-ceasefire

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-11-19/israel-hostages-gaza-bombing-civilians-genocide-holocaust-studies

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/20/palestine-quran-islam-americans-tiktok

    ReplyDelete
  69. Mulligan9:30 AM

    https://aeon.co/essays/capitalism-is-modernitys-most-beguiling-dangerous-enchantment

    Mammon, Far from representing rationality and logic, capitalism is modernity’s most beguiling and dangerous form of enchantment

    Eugene McCarraher

    The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674271092/?coliid=I3VA7N8ARN0UE&colid=3CXKTWKYBMQBS&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_ys_dp_it

    McCarraher in his book advocates the like of a Ruskin revival. A very smart person recently told me that the solution to everything is the return of Tolstoyan communes. These things I see as what MB calls dual process alternatives. No way they'll catch on in this country's mainstream....Book looks fascinating though!

    ReplyDelete
  70. Mulligan-

    Yes, along w/technology and 'progress'. Also check out 2nd story in my collection, "The Heart of the Matter."

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  71. Hey Wafers - it’s getting towards the end of 2023 and I love year-end lists… could we share some of our favorite reads and favorite albums of the year ? I’ll start;

    Music;

    M. Sage, “paradise crick” (organic instrumental ambient / experimental - full of life)
    Maya Ongaku “approach to anima” (laid back Japanese instrumental album - perfect coffee-drinking morning music)
    Eddie Chacon “sundown” (soul, RnB, “celestial soul”/jazz)
    Fred again… and Brian Eno “secret life” (very spare ambient electronic textures)
    Lankum, “false Lankum” (experimental dissonant Irish traditional music)
    Graves, “Gary owens” (quirky, easy going country ditties)
    Fever Ray “radical romantics” (electronic / experimental pop)
    Baby Rose, ‘through and through” (RnB + a bit of Nina Simone)
    R.a.p. Ferreira “asiatique black wizard lily funk” (poetic rap)
    Midwife and Vyva Melinkolya “orb weaving” (shoegaze / slowcore)

    As for reading, I liked “There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness” by Carlo Rovelli, “America the Beautiful?” by Blythe Roberson, “Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation” by Jon Ward, “the Creative Act” by Rick Rubin, and I’m hoping to finish Grafton Tanner’s book on Nostalgia by the end of the year. Also enjoying the poetry of Welsh poet R.S. Thomas lately. Looking forward to hearing from others

    ReplyDelete
  72. Megan-

    Cdn't run it, as you exceeded the half-pg-max limit. Pls edit down and re-send. Thank you.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  73. Satchmo12:44 AM

    This lady is a true Amerikkkan! A Florida rapper was caught on camera gunning down her manager b4 getting mowed down by a white car.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/florida-rapper-caught-on-security-footage-gunning-down-manager-in-street-before-being-run-over-by-car/ar-AA1kcsMf

    ReplyDelete
  74. Satch-

    This is really wonderful, eh wot? America!

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  75. Wafers-

    Someone read my work! I'm gonna faint w/joy:

    https://www.eurasiareview.com/21112023-what-if-the-constitution-no-longer-applied-freedoms-greatest-hour-of-danger-is-now-oped/

    However, I doubt his proposed solution to America's inevitable, and ongoing, downfall, is gonna work. (Sorta reminds me of Chris Hedges' call for the masses to rise up.) Whatchu think, amigos?

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  76. Anjin-san10:53 AM

    On YouTube I have been listening to an audiobook of The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman's great analysis of the run up to and then the course of WWI.

    https://youtu.be/5HGKWd5CXdY

    The first five chapters are about the European imperial jockeying for advantage and their war planning in the years 1905-1914. I was struck by the eerie familiarity to the chaos of the world today with the USA trying desperately to hold onto its assumed preeminence in the world.

    There was a line at 3:11:30 about the Austrians igniting the war with "the extreme frivolity of senile empires."

    Encapsulate in so few words the USA today - a senile empire with a senile President and a hubris and power to destroy us all

    I'm sure they are planning and scheming like mad, but as that great philosopher Mike Tyson said "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

    ReplyDelete
  77. Anjin-san11:21 AM

    Sorry... I made a mistake in the timing of my last post. The quote is at the 3:17:50 time. If you can correct please do .. otherwise if you would email me what I wrote at drifwoodgk@gmail.com I will amend and repost

    ReplyDelete
  78. Anjin-

    The line is "the bellicose frivolity of senile empires." This is a perfect description of US foreign policy today. Led by a senile doofus, and supported by millions of buffoons.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  79. Cowards/scumbags worried abt their careers:

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/22/harvard-law-pro-palestinian-letter-gaza-israel-censorship

    Harvard's motto is "Veritas". How do you say Load of Crap in Latin?

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  80. Wafers-

    Imagine this scenario. Schmiden and Kamala decide to make a speech to the American people. Reminiscent of Jimmy's 1979 'spiritual malaise' speech, they choose to broadcast from Annapolis.

    Schmiden: "I need to say to the American people that I am a doofus, little more than a clown. Well, also a genocidal warmonger, and a war criminal. If Trumpi gets elected in 2024, it will be a nightmare. But let's face it: you are already living a nightmare. It's called the Biden presidency. My foreign policy is a horror show. I'm just a piece of trash."

    Kamala: "As for me, aka Schmamala, I'm basically just a dope. Also a rancid bag of douche fluid. There's not much more I can say, except that when I look in the mirror, I feel like puking my guts out."

    Wdn't this be great?

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  81. ps: On the other hand, here's what decent people look like:

    https://www.latimes.com/delos/story/2023-11-22/cudahy-palestine-city-council-resolution

    ReplyDelete
  82. Motto for Harvard: "Onus caca"?

    ReplyDelete
  83. A bit more succinct this time. Since I posted the Vaknin talks on Israel/Hamas earlier, here is a nice follow up discussion with some similarly sharp insights:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC1ieG_h68Y&t=48s

    Vaknin often remarks on how many Malignant Narcissists and Psychopaths are in the Israeli government. He is certainly an expert on the subject of personality disorders (as well as a very informed Israeli citizen), and he seems to mean this in the clinical sense. Interesting. I've never read an in-depth biography of Netanyahu, but he certainly appears to tick many of the boxes of either "Malignant Narcissist" or outright sociopath. Avignor Lieberman is another one who gives off a very shady vibe. (Though I think he is currently out of power.) To my admittedly "philosemitic" self, the real tragedy of all this is how the sensible Israeli "left of center" coalition (such as it was), the ones who wanted to do right by the Palestinians, who fought against the settlements, the excessive crackdowns, the corruption, and supported the two-state solution, etc., were essentially obliterated as a viable political force over the past twenty years.

    At any rate, if you want something fascinating, literary, entertaining and enlightening to read over the holidays, check out this a propros book. It is a free PDF, and one of my all-time favorites: https://cassiopaea.org/cass/sanity_1.PdF

    ReplyDelete
  84. Jack-

    What is Latin for "We're so full of shit we don't know if we're coming or going"?

    Megan-

    Terrible shame, abt the Israeli Left. Given the general psychosis-lite of the Israeli public, led by the psychosis-heavy of Netanyahu--or narcissistic psychosis (NP), one might call it--they really didn't stand a chance. And something similar obtains in the US. Trumpi, who will probably be our next pres, is a paradigm case of NP, and Americans in general have a lite case of it, in the form of avid hustling behavior and other forms of anti-human deviance (extreme individualism, etc.). What can ya do, really? But at least America will be effectively over by 2030, and I doubt Israel will make it to its 100th birthday (2048).

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  85. ps: Megan: keep in mind that 'philosemitic' is not the same thing as 'philozionistic'. I'm the first, for example, but not the 2nd. The 2nd, beginning with al-Nakba in 1948, falls into the category of war criminality. It's complicated, of course, given the need to end the British Mandate, and in the wake of the Holocaust; but ultimately one can't create an identity for oneself by destroying the identity of others. In doing so, Israel sowed the karmic seeds of its own destruction, which is what is now unfolding in spades. On one level, Netanyahu is a douche bag; but more to the pt, he's pretty much nuts.

    ReplyDelete
  86. ps2: Keep in mind the brilliant short poem I penned a few yrs ago:

    "Our lives are X-rated
    For we are buffoons--and degraded."

    (Keats move over)

    ReplyDelete
  87. Satchmo11:25 AM

    The author bemoans the lack of Chinese tourists visiting Amerikkkan tourist destinations, since they're known 2 b big spenders.

    "American tourist hotspots now face a significant economic challenge: a sharp decline in Chinese tourists, a critical demographic known for its substantial spending power."

    Amerikkka has been losing its appeal as a tourist destination 4 every1 else, too & I don't blame 'em. It's a violent shithole

    https://jingdaily.com/us-tourist-destinations-wonder-when-will-chinese-tourists-return/

    ReplyDelete
  88. Here’s something in the ever-creative capitalist hustling department. Hustling via deadly armed violence that is. Killer Kyle is having a book published about his acquittal. Of course this functionally illiterate high school dropout doofus, who probably couldn’t write a three sentence paragraph grammatically correct, obviously is having a ghost writer do it for him. What a way to get rich! Only here in the gun loving U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U. S. A.!
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/kyle-rittenhouse-book-story-controversy-b2450590.html
    https://www.newsweek.com/kyle-rittenhouse-book-sparks-uproar-1845143

    p.s. Of course, Doctor, as per your quoting Kamala: "As for me, aka Schmamala, I'm basically just a dope. Also a rancid bag of douche fluid. There's not much more I can say, except that when I look in the mirror, I feel like puking my guts out."
    She obviously shall be laughing the whole time as she’s saying it.

    ReplyDelete
  89. Joe-

    Can one laugh and barf at the same time? Maybe this is Kamala's only talent. As for Kyle: a true American buffoon.

    Meanwhile, let's have a look at the world situation (I'll be repeating some things I've said b4). This is prompted by the recent elections, in Holland and Argentina, of extreme rt-wing candidates. WTF is happening? My take follows the style of the World Systems Analysis School, wh/(I believe) still exists.

    The central drama underlying everything rt now is the shift in tectonic plates, from rule by the Global North to the eruption of the subaltern peoples, the Global South. Which, imo, includes Hamas vs. Israel, no matter how awful, how brutal, the massacre of the Be'eri kibbutz on Oct. 7th was. People like Netanyahu and Schmiden are not smart enuf to understand what's going on, but they feel it intuitively, and so the Global North is violently trying to hang on to its 500-yr hegemonic role. Hence Netan is out to destroy the Palestinian people (not just Hamas), and Schmiden is willing to underwrite (so to speak) this genocide. If you come out in favor of the Pals, you are branded an antisemite and lose yr job, or worse.

    But it's all karma on a grand scale. We have had the imperial, colonial regimes of the Global North, consisting of capitalism and its accompanying cruelties, for 500 yrs now. This is coming to an end, and by the yr 2100, the Global South will have replaced those regimes. There is true justice in this. But here's the catch: the regime(s) of the Global South may not be any better! In fact, it cd even be worse, for all we know. Change means things will be different--that's all. It doesn't necessarily mean things will be better. Only time will tell.

    As the Global North disintegrates, consider the American political scene. These characters in the W.H., the Senate, and the House: my god, they are ABSURD. How did we wind up with a moron for VP, Lauren Bobert as a rep., MT Greene with her Jewish Space Lasers--the list goes on and on, and it is frankly hilarious. Even the word 'buffoons' doesn't quite capture them. And altho he hasn't (yet) had a brain biopsy, I'm guessing the pres has pieces of shit in his head, in lieu of gray matter.

    Anyway, when tectonic plates shift--last time was from Medieval to Modern--chaos reins. So for those of you who have a huge existential headache, rdg the awful news on a daily basis, this is why. In any case, Marx and Hegel were wrong: History is not necessarily moving to some better place, far off in the distance. There is no 'divine plan'; the abject failure of the Soviet Union made that clear enuf. What does exist is the rise and fall of nations and empires, often in unpredictable ways. Other than that, I don't have a crystal ball, and neither does anyone else.

    But check out the 2nd story in "The Heart of the Matter," for a sensible, if utopian, alternative.

    Yesterday, I called up the Supreme Greatest Hits album on my computer, and danced to the music. Try it, you won't regret it.

    abrazos, amigos
    mb

    ReplyDelete
  90. ps: as for the Medieval to Modern shift, the classic work is

    https://www.amazon.com/Waning-Middle-Ages-Johan-Huizinga/dp/0486404439/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ZJZX9SWZ965L&keywords=waning+of+the+middle+ages&qid=1700764047&s=books&sprefix=waning+of+th%2Cstripbooks%2C5091&sr=1-1

    Huizinga says Europe was depressed (psychologically) for 200 yrs, as a result of this transition. No shit!

    ReplyDelete
  91. ps2: Sorry, I meant to say the Supremes. What great gals!

    ReplyDelete
  92. And yet another American douche bag:

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/23/new-york-islamophobic-comments-street-vendor-hate-crime

    Why not hold his head under water for 10 mins? Is there no upper limit to American buffoonery?

    ReplyDelete
  93. ps: This bozo, Stuart Seldowitz, was a senior advisor in the Obama administration. Great people at the top, eh?

    ReplyDelete
  94. James Allen10:16 AM

    Immigrant on immigrant criminality, or so it appears to me. Maybe both are Americans. Hardly seems to matter any more.

    A man playing with his son on a Brooklyn playground on 6 November discovers that wearing a keffiyeh these days might not be a good idea. Hadasa Bozakkaravani has been charged with four hate crimes after hurling her phone and hot coffee at Ashish Prashar and his toddler, telling them “You and your son, go away.” Accusing Prashar of being a member of Hamas, she called the two terrorists and dogs.

    https://people.com/woman-threw-coffee-at-dad-at-playground-charged-hate-crimes-8406019

    ReplyDelete
  95. Jas-

    Chock full o' morons, our great country, eh? The victim wasn't even an Arab.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  96. I want to tell you about a recent conversation I had with an academic colleague, which shows to what degree supposedly smart people can compartmentalize their thinking without even noticing the contradictions involved.
    This colleague is very perturbed about the ongoing genocide in Gaza at the hands of the Israelis, as am I. This is an issue he’s cared about for a long time, and he knows that I feel the same way. He’s taken to referring to Biden as Genocide Joe, and I’m on board with that. However, prior to this he seemed to think that Joe Biden was just wonderful. He seemed to believe everything that the New York Times, and Paul Krugman, told him to believe. Furthermore, he’s totally okay with what we’re doing in Ukraine. He is unable, or unwilling, to see the parallels between the situations in Gaza and Ukraine. In the case of the latter, he has a ‘Putin bad, Trump bad’ mindset, and it came out in that conversation that he still thinks Putin somehow got Trump elected. I was hoping that with his revised opinion of Joe Biden that he might change his mind about the idiocy in Ukraine. But no, he’s quite upset over the fact that some Republicans are trying to withhold funding for that war. He was quite traumatized by the election of Trump, more so than anyone I know, and I’m quite sure that this why he supports the war in Ukraine. He as much as said so the other day.
    You won’t be surprised to hear that should I say anything that deviates evenly slightly from whatever he believes, he gets very self-righteous, condescending, and verbally abusive. He is the arbiter of truth, I guess.

    ReplyDelete
  97. Flyingspaghettimonstr1:03 PM

    Found this great essay that talks about Amerikkka being a uniquely cruel society. It mentioned things like amerikkka having no safety net & the general nastiness of its ppl. An excerpt:

    “A society of people punching one another down must collapse. What else could it do? It cannot rise, can it? If I am punching you down, and I am punching the next person down below me, how can anyone ever lift anyone up?”

    Archived version is linked, cuz the piece vanished

    https://web.archive.org/web/20180225001308/https://eand.co/why-is-america-the-worlds-most-uniquely-cruel-society-f67afc5c6b9a?gi=67005038281d

    ReplyDelete
  98. Fly-

    This cruelty is my experience of America as well, from junior high on. In fact, for me all of high school (and then college) was a modified version of "Lord of the Flies." The whole way of life is based on hurting or besting others, both systemically and randomly--e.g. some teenager in Bklyn will rape an old lady, that sorta thing. These have become fairly regular occurrences by now.

    ccg-

    You might pt out to him that (a) he's a turkey, and (b) that Trump is going to be our next pres. America has millions of hi-IQ assholes.

    mb

    Every day when I wake up, the 1st thing I do is yell
    DEGRADED BUFFOONS! Makes me feel a whole lot better.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  99. Greetings MB and Wafers,

    MB-

    Many thanks for your analysis of the world situation. I'm certainly one who has a permanent headache about making sense of the current situation. Who could image the Netherlands moving toward a tyrannical right-wing future, tho Europe has been resonating w/an immigration crisis for some time. It does seem the we in the west are caught inside a karmic drama that is largely out of our control. In any case, thank you for your mind, insight, and honesty in telling us the brutal truth that change doesn't necessarily mean better.

    Jeff

    ReplyDelete
  100. Why not? Let's just kill everybody!

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/24/california-jogger-killing-homeless-man-blocking-sidewalk

    ReplyDelete
  101. Flyingspaghettimonstr10:41 AM

    It's known 2 all & sundry that what passes 4 a “healthcare” system in Amerikkka is a failure. Just for fun, I did a web search 4 the keywords “fuck health insurance”. You'll see endless rants from ppl that got denied treatment, surprise bills & more.

    Like this person who couldn't get allergy treatment despite shelling out $400/month for private insurance

    https://mobile.twitter.com/nilkski_/status/1299390640678154240

    Or how bout this guy whose insurance co. had him going in circles for his wife's Multiple Sclerosis? These horror stories r amusing 2 me, from a declinist standpt:)

    https://pnhp.org/news/worse-than-the-mob-the-insurance-industry-is-organized-crime/

    ReplyDelete
  102. The holiday weekend wasn’t a total washout. Check out the hate crime shooting and the hatred for homeless people shooting in this angry, violent, despicable shithole country.
    https://apnews.com/article/shooting-burlington-vermont-palestinian-american-students-ab836d1941e4237b3649353eaceb4092
    https://apnews.com/article/four-killed-north-carolina-homeless-campsite-fa3101a30b08ae93b026ae4ded5a34cb

    Of course if a USAin doesn’t have a gun, he’ll stab someone to death.
    https://nypost.com/2023/11/24/metro/long-island-man-gianluca-bordone-arrested-in-stabbing-death-of-nj-high-schooler-outside-nyc-axe-throwing-bar/

    And women are no exception, especially when it comes to a dastardly caregiver.
    https://lawandcrime.com/crime/trusted-caregiver-behind-bars-after-allegedly-causing-brain-bleed-in-2-year-old-boy/

    U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U. S. A.!

    ReplyDelete
  103. Wafers-

    Ask your friends the following questions, and watch them turn red-faced and start waving their arms hysterically:

    1. In what way is Schmiden NOT a senile doofus, and a genocidal warmonger?
    2. In what way is Kamala (Schmamala) NOT a rancid bag of douche fluid?
    3. In what way is America NOT a genocidal war machine run by a plutocracy and cheered on by clueless buffoons?
    4. Why SHOULDN'T the US nuke Chad, Fiji, Canada, and Tasmania?

    ReplyDelete
  104. And yet another example of my theory of microcosm/macrocosm:

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/28/stuart-seldowitz-islamophobia-us-diplomat

    Seldowitz, and the US gov't, are both garbage.

    ReplyDelete
  105. Not so french9:28 AM

    Something grim for today. An israeli sniper killed an 11 y.o a while ago. Only arabic news channels reported it for now, I don't think it will be reported anywhere else.

    https://youtu.be/T-311Jb8q-g?feature=shared

    To use Arendt's concepts, carpet bombing cities may be some kind of banal evil, but aiming at a child and then pulling the trigger is something else, that's intentional evil.

    ReplyDelete
  106. french-

    Who are the 'human animals', really?

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  107. Satchmo5:36 PM

    So Jimmy Carter's wife recently kicked the bucket & had her funeral. Carter himself isn't too far behind on the reaper's list, either.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/jimmy-carter-says-final-goodbye-at-rosalynn-carter-funeral-in-plains/ar-AA1kK2i1

    I often wonder what Amerikkka might look like had it reflected on Carter's speech. I know self-reflection isn't in its DNA, and Amerikkka is now on a steep decline as a result. But it can't hurt to daydream it, can it?

    ReplyDelete
  108. Satch-

    You need to reference the speech. I presume yr talking about the 'spiritual malaise' speech of 15 July 1979 in Annapolis. A link wd be helpful.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  109. Wafers-

    Henry Kissinger, war criminal and all-around piece of dreck, just died. Good fucking riddance.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  110. Majors7:32 AM

    thinking today of henry kissinger's victims

    3 million + vietnamese

    2.5 million + cambodians

    200,000+ laotians

    3 million + bangladeshis

    10,000+ indians

    10,000+ pakistanis

    15,000+ egyptians

    3500+ syrians

    6500+ cypriots

    40,000+ chileans

    30,000+ argentinians

    Henry Kissinger, Diplomat Responsible for Millions of Deaths, Dies at 100
    https://theintercept.com/2023/11/29/henry-kissinger-death/

    Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies
    https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/henry-kissinger-war-criminal-dead-1234804748/

    ReplyDelete
  111. Majors-

    Once again, the US is a genocidal war machine run by a plutocracy and cheered on by clueless buffoons. As w/Madeleine Albright, there will probably be a state funeral for Kissinger, lauding all of his 'accomplishments'. Wh/wd be appropriate, in a horrific and bizarre way.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  112. Hello, Wafers:

    It's been likely four years since I have posted here. While many won't remember that earlier post or my handle, my last message mentioned a move to the Netherlands and a town in the countryside to be with my (now) wife.

    Leaving the USA has been a rush to say the least: marriage and the first child arrived this past summer. A girl! I've discovered love I didn't think possible for someone who was always uninterested in having any offspring. We found a place to live despite a severe housing crisis. I've taken and quit a few jobs and have had enough money to pay the bills. There has been a lot of laughter and tears, and bike rides through tulip fields. I've downed copious beers brewed by monks and eaten 'patat met' underneath ancient city gates. We've weathered corona curfews, infertility, illnesses, and financial setbacks.

    But, I am still alive and continually "coming to my senses". It is no utopia here, especially with the recent political news, but perhaps I (and now my daughter) will have a chance at a different life than the default one expected back home. (Where is home now?)

    This blog continues to be an encouragement and a warm blanket to wrap oneself in when the outside world intrudes too much into the inner one. Will try to check in more and share how US collapse ripples across the ocean.

    ReplyDelete
  113. Janus-

    Congratulations on all fronts, but esp. on getting out of the US, wh/is a vicious country filled w/violent, self-destructive buffoons. However, the recent Dutch election suggests to me that Holland is hardly free of buffoons itself. That aside, it's a country I really like. Give my regards to the Rijksmuseum.

    Keep in mind that this is the only blog worth rdg.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  114. Wafers-

    Didju guys know that there is a video showing Israeli soldiers making fun of starving Palestinians, who have no food or water? There is also another one: a popular T-shirt among the IDF is a pic of a pregnant Palestinian woman in the cross-hairs of a rifle, w/the caption (in Hebrew): "Two for one." Finally, during the last 2 days an Israeli sniper shot and killed an 11-yr-old Palestinian boy. Great people, the Israelis.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  115. Gd essay, but w/dubious conclusion:

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/opinion/henry-kissinger-the-hypocrite.html

    And here's a surprise (ha ha):

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/health/suicide-guns-cdc.html

    ReplyDelete
  116. Satchmo7:26 PM

    Dr. Berman,

    I was indeed referring 2 Jimmy Carter's spiritual malaise speech in my last post. I remember watching it w/ my grandmother & being moved by it

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0tGd_9Tahzw&pp=ygUOQ2FydGVyIG1hbGFpc2U%3D

    Where might Amerikkka b if it heeded his words & took a look in the mirror? The world may never know

    ReplyDelete
  117. More on a piece of trash, and a perfect representative of the US in general:

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/30/henry-kissinger-chile-argentina-south-america

    And this from one of my heroes, Ariel Dorfman (be sure to read his bks):

    https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-11-30/henry-kissinger-salvador-allende-chile-coup-disappeared

    A piece of dreck who will be feted by the US establishment; who are almost as disgusting as he was.

    ReplyDelete
  118. Satch-

    America never looks in the mirror. End of story, and end of America.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  119. ps: Can you imagine a butcher like Kissinger getting the Nobel Peace Prize (1973)?

    ps2: In ancient Greek mythology Nemesis was the goddess of revenge. The saying goes: "Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first drive insane." This strikes me as a fair description of what's going on in the US today.

    ReplyDelete
  120. I wonder if there are any billionaires or world leaders who aren't totally traumatized, distorted souls driven by insatiable desire for fame, power, and money. Weird system we've got here.

    Bibi embraces Musk for the same reason he embraces Putin, Orban, Trump and a bunch of the rest of the world's worst people. It's not a good reason.

    Why Netanyahu Loves Antisemites Like Elon Musk So Much - Israel News - Haaretz.com
    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-28/ty-article-opinion/.premium/why-netanyahu-loves-antisemites-like-elon-musk-so-much/0000018c-150b-d19a-a3cf-7d9b9dd30000

    ReplyDelete
  121. The world’s richest 1 percent generated as much carbon emissions as the poorest two-thirds in 2019, according to a new Oxfam report that examines the uber-wealthy’s lavish lifestyles and investments in heavily polluting industries.

    This Oxfam report says -
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/20/rich-polluters-carbon-emissions-oxfam-report/

    What a sick world

    ReplyDelete
  122. James Allen11:12 AM

    Though the article’s text doesn’t mention it explicitly, the title does the heavy lifting:

    https://www.wral.com/story/southeast-raleigh-teacher-says-she-tried-to-stop-deadly-stabbing-but-got-trapped-behind-crowd-of-students-filming/21175104/

    Don’t forget to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and HIT that bell to ensure you get future content.

    Words fail me.

    ReplyDelete
  123. Otto-

    The Elite are trash. Never forget that. Their admirers are also trash.

    Jas-

    Today's students are mostly like Kamala: rancid bags of douche fluid.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  124. Remember When America Loved Mussolini?But are they ready for the mango version?https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/remember-when-america-loved-mussolini

    Rome Georgia for many years had a statue of a wolf given to it by Benito Mussolini on behalf of the city of Rome Italy - his name inscribed on the statue. May still be there. I know I saw it in late 80s when I lived there....This is a very strange country....

    Anyway this is some fascinating history

    ReplyDelete
  125. Rud-

    Let's get down to basics:

    https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/30/trump-dictator-2024-election-robert-kagan/

    In Jan. of 2025, Trumpi will begin the process of not only destroying the Constitution, or American democracy, but of America itself. As Kagan suggests, there is very little possibility of stopping this. I have repeatedly predicted the end of the US by 2030; it may come earlier.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  126. Satchmo10:55 AM

    Fun times in Wisconsin: a drunk dude was charged 4 biting off some1's fingertip @ a wedding. He was apparently groping a guest there in his drunken stupor. Aren't Amerikkkan just GRAND??

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12697703/Wisconsin-drunk-bit-fingertip-wedding-lac-la-belle.html

    P.S, Wisconsin is a depressing shithole, like the rest of Amerikkka. Much of the population there r either drunks or druggies, cuz there's fuck else 2 do

    https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/aoda/drug-overdose-deaths.htm

    ReplyDelete
  127. Pay no attention to the DC blather from Biden and Blinken about “humanitarian pauses” and “measures to protect civilians” in Gaza. Israel’s political leadership has taken a low-risk gamble that the U.S. will not shut off its military and financial assistance, and is going for broke to either kill or expel most of the population from Gaza, and could care less about the effects on U.S. elections. The Israeli view is to treat the fate of the Pals as an externality, and have the Europeans and other countries deal with the Pals as refugees. Really, would a Trump administration do anything different? Who besides the U.S. is going to exert enough contravailing force to stop this? From Moon of Alabama:

    www.moonofalabama.org/2023/12/israel-plans-for-long-war-and-the-expulsion-of-people-from-gaza

    Meanwhile, as MB points out, neocon Robert Kagen worries about a “Trump dictatorship” in a Washington Post op-ed piece; today’s Naked Capitalism “Links” had comments in reaction:

    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/12/links-12-2-2023

    ReplyDelete
  128. Thank you for your service, Sir. LOL! Check out today’s mugshot of an angry ex-Army reservist who, after “serving our country” ( LOL) in popular conservative lingo, got angry at Popeye’s Chicken and tossed hot grease at a coworker. But as usual, he has “mental issues”, another highly recurring phenomenon here in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U. S. A.!
    https://wgxa.tv/news/local/macon-man-sentenced-to-three-years-following-hot-grease-attack-at-popeyes
    https://toofab.com/2023/12/02/georgia-man-threw-hot-grease-popeyes-employee-sentenced/


    Check out also the newest fad in callous shootings here in this disgusting violent shithole country. It’s called “Hobo Hunting”.
    https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/courts/story/2023-12-01/driver-hopkins-serra-mesa-homeless-killing-sentence

    ReplyDelete
  129. It's probably worth mentioning that neocon Robert Kagan is married to neocon Victoria Nuland, who is serving as an under secretary of state and is chiefly running the war in Ukraine. She has long been involved in anti-Russian activity in several democratic administrations. She was involved with 2014 coup in Ukraine, which helped set the stage for current fiasco there:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Nuland


    On a related topic, this scathing article on Kissinger appeared on Al-Jazeera:

    https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/12/2/kissinger-a-war-criminal-with-a-nobel-peace-prize

    Nice to know that he was pushing war as recently as this past October.

    ReplyDelete
  130. Thought I would drop in. First post I read, "Taking a Breather" contains a "gross" error. The Matrix did not have gross earnings of $460 BILLION in its first year or in its first 20 years. Lifetime gross is in the millions, not billions: $171,479,930, which is 1/2682 of $460 Billion, a gigantic factual error which does not inspire confidence to continue reading philosophical musings / opinions. I hope the Mexican editors realize the difference between millions and billions.

    https://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchise/fr3142029061/

    PS. Spent a month in Oaxaca (capital city Nov. 2022) per your recommendation. Oaxaca had serious water and garbage issues. Not a pleasant experience. This is what it looked like:

    https://piedepagina.mx/oaxacas-garbage-problem/

    ReplyDelete
  131. futuro-

    Wow! Thanks for the correction. When I looked it up a 2nd time, the source on the Net said 460 million, not billion. Obviously, I misread it (very late at night). My bad, amigo. I'll let my Mexican editor know.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  132. HeelaMonster7:38 PM

    M.B.,

    As for Kissinger, some months ago I listened to David Feldman (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DavidFeldman/streams), who made this comment about him:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_kS_O6xQMA&t=9m19s

    Damn! That was a great line. I really wish I'd thought of it.

    ReplyDelete
  133. Heela-

    Where is the ref to Kissinger?

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  134. Doctor & Wafers,
    Check out some drunken USAins, two who are teachers! LOL! The third one wants to get it on with a police dog. LOL!
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12436417/Third-grade-teacher-arrested-drunk.html
    https://cafemom.com/news/another-oklahoma-teacher-caught-drinking-wine-in-classroom/school-officials-contacted-the-police-early-in-the-morning
    https://www.local10.com/news/local/2023/11/29/video-shows-howling-man-threatening-to-rape-kill-police-dogs-during-keys-traffic-stop/

    Of course our conservative USAin Trumpers are just as spaced out without the booze! LOL!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZttTEmAOfCI
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPgR3CDIeN8

    Trump 2024! U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U. S. A.!

    ReplyDelete
  135. I love it!

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/04/texas-republican-party-vote-antisemitism

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/04/white-house-philadelphia-protest-israel-restaurant-antisemitic

    Cd Americans *be* more stupid, as Chandler Bing wd say? I can't get enuf of this shit! America will not end with a bang, or a whimper, but in total buffoonery! Go turkeys!

    ReplyDelete
  136. HeelaMonster10:54 PM

    If you copy the link into another browser window it should start running the video at the point where Feldman makes the brief remark.

    The starting point of the remark is indicated at the end of the URL: t=9m19s or 9 minutes and 19 seconds.

    ReplyDelete
  137. Heela-

    Got it, thanks. I do wish he had called Kissinger a douche bag, however.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  138. This is nice:

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/05/middleeast/israel-hamas-military-civilian-ratio-killed-intl-hnk/index.html

    Jesus, what a country!

    ReplyDelete
  139. Mr. Oops11:02 AM

    Dr. Berman,

    Just for a random, unscientific moral sampling...

    I've been posting the stats coming out of Palestine on my Facebook page each day to see what my NY Times-reading, liberal friends would say. One snark comment about whether the stats were from the last decade, but pretty much zero clicks/likes. A couple of weepy-face emojis... Zero comments.

    Then I posted a photo of a trash can at Chase bank whose three recycling holes all go to the same trash bag inside. The photo got a mass of likes and comments—some sad, some outraged, some commenting on what kind of a society we've become.

    What does one say to this?

    ReplyDelete
  140. Oops-

    Easy: Welcome to America!

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  141. ps: I've been saying it for yrs now: The Americans are a very shallow, stupid people, wh/is a major reason that the country is collapsing. Their souls are muddy; they have shit for brains; and instead of hearts, only old, dessicated sponges. This is the "gene pool" from wh/our leaders come, who can only make bad decisions as a result. What are Schmiden, Schmamala, the Congress, the Senate but trash?

    ReplyDelete
  142. Flyingspaghettimonstr7:20 PM

    A house in an Arlington, VA suburb exploded after a police standoff w/ some crazed Asian guy who was the owner. The shockwave blew out the windows of some of the surrounding houses. After police told him 2 surrender for shooting flares from his yard, he shot @ them b4 the explosion happened. Crazy shit. Amerikkka turns everyone insane

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/virginia-man-suspected-of-firing-gun-at-cops-is-presumed-dead-in-house-explosion/ar-AA1l3hF9

    ReplyDelete
  143. Check it out:

    https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/05/israel-disproportionate-force-tactic-infrastructure-economy-civilian-casualties

    ReplyDelete
  144. Dear Dr. Berman,
    It was a pleasure to read the essay you posted above. It came to life for me against the rich matrix of history and meaning you provided years ago with "Wandering God". Thank you for posting it. Like you, I get tired of being disgusted all the time - it gets boring and is contrary to my exuberant nature - so I was way overdue for a good dose of what you serve up best. As for those unresponsive journals, what comes to mind is Elon Musk's eloquent response in a recent interview when asked how he feels about Disney et al leaving X when he refused to censor his customers' communications, to wit, "GO FUCK YOURSELF".

    Do you follow Glenn Greenwald or anyway listen to what he has to say from time to time? He's so good - a journalism hero, intelligent, deeply informed, and impassioned. A lifelong Democrat, these days he's often accused by Dems as having moved to the right though in fact he holds the same positions he always has, while the Dem Party has moved to who-knows-where leaving all its principles behind. He's on Rumble week nights at 7 (but you can access all the shows anytime) interviewing all manner of people, many of whom the cowed MSM won't touch. And he lets them talk, for a wonder. https://rumble.com/GGreenwald

    Again, thanks for the great article!

    ReplyDelete
  145. And this:

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-12-02/israel-gaza-palestinian-american-history

    ReplyDelete
  146. Heidi-

    Glad you liked it. I might have some luck getting it published in translation, in Mexico, but I doubt the English original will ever appear in the US. The Jacobin journal rejected it w/o even bothering to read it, and that's what I can typically expect. The bottom line is that I can never get on the radar screen. That anyone different gets marginalized has a long tradition in America, as I argued in "Why America Failed."

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  147. Good info from the estimable Rashid Khalidi - thanks. Here he's interviewed by Glenn Greenwald on System Update.

    https://rumble.com/v3ynsmr-system-update-show-189.html

    ReplyDelete
  148. Wafers-

    Is it time for Zelensky to retire to his villa in Tuscany? He's coming across like 3-day-old tuna fish.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/06/republicans-ukraine-funding

    Note that Bernie Sanders suggested the US not continue to subsidize genocide in Gaza. And in what way is Schmiden *not* a degraded buffoon? Or a disgusting turkey?:

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/dec/06/joe-biden-israel-gaza-rhetoric-analysis

    As for the future Trump victory, 11 mos. away, this is pretty gd:
    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/06/the-15-questions-that-will-not-be-asked-at-the-republican-debate

    Note that Nikki Haley is not only a fraud, but also a total douche baguette. Part of the national process of beating off, wh/is in full swing. The reality? A nation up to its eyeballs in dogshit.

    mb



    ReplyDelete
  149. Dub alchemist7:55 PM

    I saw a bus ad today addressing the youth mental health crisis in Amerikkka. A further look into it revealed an op-ed piece screeching about how the mental health system is “failing” the youth.

    https://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/youth-crisis-mental-health-system-failing-18512469.php

    Given the sorry state of the social fabric now, it's no wonder this generation is miserable. They grew up in the milieu of smartphones, iPads & (anti)social media. And they hardly play outside anymore like previous generations did.

    ReplyDelete
  150. Dub-

    The destruction of our children, wh/is proceeding at a rapid pace, is a terribly sad thing, but it is also the destruction of the country. In any case, it's not just the health system that is failing; *all* of our institutions have broken down. Two brilliant scholars, Ronald Dworkin and Paul Fussell, made this pt many yrs ago.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  151. We've entered the "circular firing squad" phase of decline. A senator facing corruption charges (who refuses to resign) grills financial CEOs for ripping off consumers. Look at the smirks on those CEOs, who all claimed to know nothing about their banks' sleazy practices. When people like this are the leaders of the public and private spheres, the country is in serious trouble.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/sen-robert-menendez-facing-bribery-charges-stumps-bank-ceos-by-asking-how-much-their-firms-paid-in-settlements-for-allegedly-ripping-off-consumers/ar-AA1l6XrL?ocid=BingHp01&cvid=0429acbf03cb44db9844aad9645dc3bf&ei=14

    ReplyDelete
  152. Wafers-

    Apparently some academics are no longer content w/staying in the ivory tower, and want to be more active in the larger community:

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/06/us/university-of-nevada-las-vegas-campus-shooting/index.html

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  153. ps: Here's another Karen attack. I confess, I love it. Every day, the Buffoon Index (BI) goes higher and higher.

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chipotle-bowl-assault-sentence-rosemary-hayne-emily-russell-fast-food/

    Don't like yr food? Throw it in an employees face! That makes sense, no?

    ReplyDelete
  154. french-

    Pls send messages to most recent post. No one reads the older stuff. Thank you.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  155. Job application rejected? Just go out and shoot people!

    https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/12/07/unlv-shooter-anthony-polito-professor/

    ReplyDelete
  156. Thank you for this, Doctor Berman. Thank you very much

    ReplyDelete
  157. John Sylvan, the inventor of coffee K-cups, regrets creating the product because it’s terrible for the environment. The K-cup provides a single serving of coffee in a non-recyclable plastic container. Sylvan believed that this would be a product with very limited use. Instead, billions of non-recyclable K-cups are sold every year and end up in landfills.
    https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/k-cup-creator-john-sylvan-regrets-inventing-keurig-coffee-pod-system-1.2982660

    Here’s an article from 2022. Even though Keurig claims to have made the cups recyclable, the article claims that only about 3% of the plastic can be recycled. The first article above published in 2015 claimed there were enough K-cups discarded in 1 year that they could circle the planet 10 times. Unfortunately, K-cup usage has massively increased since the pandemic.
    https://www.delish.com/kitchen-tools/a40395187/can-you-recycle-keurig-cups/

    I can understand why you’re celebratory about collapse even though I didn’t always get it. The worst thing that could happen is for the system to carry on for a very long time as it is. There likely won’t be much hope for humanity or the planet if it does. The whole system is basically built to destroy itself and we're supposed to celebrate and even defend its suicidal tendencies as progress.

    ReplyDelete
  158. Justin-

    Yr welcome, altho I'm not sure what yr thanking me for. If it's for my gd looks, I can't take much credit, inasmuch as it's due to genetics.

    Bud-

    Well, my 'celebration' is that the American empire will no longer be able to murder millions of people, wh/is the historical record. When it collapses, most of the planet will be dancing in the streets. But as an historian, I just hafta observe that everything comes to an end; that's just the way it is. The interesting question, of course, is what will replace the world capitalist system by the end of this century (or more).

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  159. Madame Ruby4:35 PM

    Hi Dr. Berman

    I’ve been lurking here for the last few years, and ordered your trilogy which I’m just starting. Thanks for keeping this blog going. I’ve learned so much!

    I know we’ve discussed Covid many times. I just came across this article, and if you think it’s worth posting, please do. It seems legit.

    https://seemorerocks.is/51120-2/

    Love, Madame Ruby

    ReplyDelete
  160. The U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U. S. A.! to the world: “What we say, goes! Do you understand us?”
    https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-un-resolution-ceasefire-humanitarian-6d3bfd31d6c25168e828274d96b85cf8

    And following up on that, from the “NASDAQ” URL comes the next subliminal stock hint: Continue to invest in the military-industrial complex!
    https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/exclusive-biden-administration-presses-congress-to-approve-tank-shells-for-israels-war-in
    https://ground.news/article/exclusive-biden-administration-asks-congress-to-approve-sale-of-israeli-tank-rounds

    ReplyDelete
  161. Ruby-

    Which trilogy? I wrote 2 of them.

    As for the covid study: I'm not that surprised. It has been difficult to sort out reliable science from politically involved b.s. One British scientific study earlier this yr concluded that face masks offered no protection at all. Just one example. Then there was some revelation that Fauci was a major stockholder in the remedy he was advocating (true or false?). Etc.

    Meanwhile: Don't lurk; live!

    Joe-

    Here's a quiz 4u: Name the two most corrupt, genocidal, sickening, and disgusting countries in the world:

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/dec/08/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-gaza-palestine-idf-civilians-blinken

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  162. The Flabster9:04 PM

    As I have studied air quality and airborne disease spread I can star the following: my take is that the main reason masking is being discouraged is that the elite want to pretend COVID is over and harmless in the same way Blinken wants to pretend that there are safe areas for people in Gaza, it makes him feel better and we proles don’t have the right make them feel uncomfortable about their beneficent decisions.

    Masking, testing and ventilation of building are excellent at reducing the spread (see US vs Japan death rates https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-17/how-japan-achieved-one-of-the-world-s-lowest-covid-death-rates?embedded-checkout=true). These things demand non-buffoonary to function. They are expensive, and even acknowledging COVID exists seems to be a threat to hustling.

    ReplyDelete
  163. Do you guys fucking believe this?:

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/us/martin-luther-king-mlk-home-arson.html

    Everywhere you turn in America, there's another douche bag wreaking havoc.

    ReplyDelete
  164. For anyone who has missed this, here is a fascinating revisionist take on the whole George Floyd episode, which is pretty compelling to watch:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFPi3EigjFA&t=5528s

    And here is some good commentary on the film:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ffv4IUxkDU

    Pretty astonishing how little of the actual truth filtered out into the mainstream media. I feel like I was totally had by all of this.

    ReplyDelete
  165. Not so french4:54 AM

    I apologies for commenting on a previously, I did not pay attention to the post.

    I'm no fan of right wing libertarians, yet, they seem to hit the nail on the head every now and then. This audio interview from the mises institute has some good points on the fake China threar issue and on America playing empire. A bonus, around the 14th minute they talk about how the US will probably hit the 50 trillion dollars debt by 2030, which, in my opinion, adds an economic dimension to the Wafer's 2030 view that the US is going down.

    https://mises.org/library/fake-china-threat

    And here's some old news that I recently found by accident, and that I found absolutely hilarious.
    Some americans prefer not to teach arabic numerals at schools. I'm waiting for them textbooks on differential equations using roman numerals
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/arabic-numerals-survey-prejudice-bias-survey-research-civic-science-a8918256.html

    ReplyDelete
  166. Your good looks notwithstanding Doctor.
    I love you more for your words
    Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  167. Justin-

    Well, who cd blame u, really? I'm so lovable, it's actually painful. Sometimes people stop me in the street, and say, "You're so lovable." Sometimes they even start to cry, and I say, "There, there."

    french-

    As for the Arabic numeral thing: how many times do I hafta say it? Americans are morons, stupid beyond belief, and this is a major reason why we're going down the drain. Honestly, what other country is this dumb?

    Megan-

    Let's add that BLM finally didn't really amt to v. much, and that Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the movement, used the $ pouring in to buy millions in real estate:

    https://abc3340.com/news/nation-world/black-lives-matter-continue-to-fracture-after-founders-home-buying-spree

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  168. Torreblanca4:43 PM

    Flabster,

    Thank you for your great summary (using Wafer terminology) of what's going on with respect to COVID. I have come to the same conclusions myself.

    Dr. Berman, it's not the case that "face masks offer no protection at all." Here is an actual controlled experiment demonstrating that N95 masks do:

    https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/226/2/199/6582941?login=false

    "the fit-test_PASSED N95 resulted in lower virus counts compared to control (P = .007)" (graphical display of that in Figure 2)

    The study shows that if you combine N95 masks with HEPA filtration it does better. But requiring such filtration would be a detriment to hustling (as would educating the population and providing them with such masks).

    -- Torreblanca

    ReplyDelete
  169. Torre-

    I've lost the ref, but there was an article I read a few mos. ago that said specifically, that the N95's and KN95's didn't do squat. Of course it cd be wrong, but it was from some scientific institute in England, I think.

    Meanwhile, consider these 2 articles together on the front pg of today's Guardian:

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/09/biden-administration-emergency-authority-tank-shells-israel

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/09/civilian-toll-israeli-airstrikes-gaza-unprecedented-killing-study

    US: scumbags of the world. Really, the lowest of the low.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  170. There, there. That's your cross to bear, Doctor. There's a Seinfeld episode in which Kramer
    had a similar effect, although with him it was just women. They said he had... (dare I even utter the term) .... the KAVORKA!

    Anyway he was able to rid himself of this curse through a mixture of garlic cloves and 13th century incantations. I think there was even a toad involved.

    So I suppose you need to decide if the effect you have on people is your albatross or whether you're content to continue responding to their bids for your attention with "there, there".

    ReplyDelete
  171. Justin-

    Always provide refs for your refs, por favor. The episode was called "The Conversion." To win some religious babe, George converts to the Latvian Orthodox Church. There are several extremely funny scenes; his plan fails when the girl tells him that she is going to Latvia for a year. As for me, the most I can boast in the love dept. is a kind of semi-kavorka.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  172. Yes!! Clearly you've seen it!
    But you're dodging the question, Doctor.

    Have you been infected with some form of the Kavorka
    where your only recourse when people come to you with their effusive praise
    founded on your unremitting case of lovability for which "there, there" is all you got?

    ReplyDelete
  173. In his latest commentary, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson succinctly skewers the U.S. buffoon military for its delusions in conducting its Project Ukraine proxy war against Russia. Using the Ukrainian military as a wind-up toy against the Russian military has proved to be a different ball game compared to fighting non-peer adversaries in Iraq and Afghanistan, and does not augur well for a future potential rumble with China. Well worth a read:

    https://sonar21.com/why-the-united-states-military-is-clueless-when-it-comes-to-ukraine

    ReplyDelete
  174. Torreblanca1:13 AM

    Dr. B,

    Thanks for your response. There's really a lot of evidence in favor of N95 masks making a difference, here's another one, this time COVID-specific (specifically, this one is about FFP2 respirators which if they have a headband are roughly the same as N95, from my understanding): https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2110117118

    -- Torreblanca

    ReplyDelete
  175. Justin-

    No dodging. Yr deeply confused. But enuf o' this, eh? (Boring, at this pt)

    Jack-

    Of course, the greater the delusion, the faster the collapse.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  176. The utter degradation of America:

    https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/11/vivek-ramaswamy-urinating-twitter-x-elon-musk-alex-jones

    I can't get enuf of it!

    ReplyDelete
  177. This guy is like Holden Caulfield in an ocean of idiots. 99% of American teenagers are essentially passive dolts. And this is America's future.

    https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-12-10/los-angeles-high-school-cancel-culture-free-speech

    ReplyDelete
  178. Lisa Foolery3:47 AM

    Thank you for this blog site.

    Been reading for some time and took to heart the words, "hit the road" given the US' major problems. I have been living in continental Europe for a few months. Many locals seem to "love" America, Americans, some lived there for decades then moved back to the EU, etc. and want to chat about America endlessly.

    I do not want to discuss America, etc. I despise it.

    How do folks deal with this issue in a respectful way with the US "loving" locals?

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  179. Lisa-

    Easy: just change the subject!

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  180. Not so french10:59 AM

    "Israel Is Losing This War", no shit. first, it is impossible for Israel to achieve its stated goals of ending Hamas, in fact I do not know of any case in history of a military ending an ideologically driven guerilla movement. Yet, Biden bypasses Congress to sell weapons to Israel. Maybe he's an idiot, or maybe he's got shares in the companies making these weapons. In any case, Joe is facing impeachment. As one college said to me this morning "I can see it, with this retaliatory climate in Congress, every president to come from now on will be facing impeachment". My hope is that the US congress turns into a more violent version of the Taiwanese parliament (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXmPDLRt6hA)

    https://www.thenation.com/article/world/israel-gaza-war/

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/09/biden-administration-emergency-authority-tank-shells-israel

    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-vote-thursday-formalizing-biden-impeachment-inquiry-lawmaker-2023-12-11/

    ReplyDelete
  181. James Allen11:32 AM

    It’s deja vu all over again.

    Felicity Huffman, one of the stars of the college admissions scandal dubbed Varsity Blues, is attempting to resurrect her reputation. She held a sitdown interview with an LA TV station, and is making the rounds to clarify her position on the whole admissions policy issue.

    Huffman, wife of Shameless star William Macy, arranged to pay $15,000 to get her daughter’s SAT score boosted to increase the likelihood that she would get into the college of her choice.

    The elite are trash.

    https://apple.news/ACcX6iSjHRT6TFPjD5SsPSw


    ReplyDelete
  182. french-

    Israel has been running bad karma since 1948. Time to pay the piper (aka self-destruction). All of wh/applies to the US as well.

    Jas-

    She's a douche baguette. And yes, of course: the elite are trash.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  183. BrokenAmerican1:45 PM

    As the 2024 election approaches, America looks more like a clogged toilet with each passing day.

    In keeping with “Advanced Beating Off”, the left is vigorously using a plunger to try to unblock the massive turd that refuses to flush. The problem is that with each successive attempt, more fecal matter ends up at their feet.

    Ladies and gentlemen, you too can own a piece of history! Yes, pieces of Trump’s mugshot suit are now for sale! Buy in now or be priced out forever!

    https://collecttrumpcards.com/#Suit

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  184. Nearly a month after President Biden said that he and Chinese President Xi had agreed to resume direct military communications, U.S. defense officials have repeatedly tried to reach their Chinese counterparts but not received any responses, officials say in this article here:
    https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/us-chinese-military-hotline-hasnt-restored-month-biden-xi-summit-rcna129137

    Surprise!

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  185. Targ-

    It's possible that Xi realized that Schmiden was a douchebag. Also, altho Schmiden needs to be slapped, Xi may have decided to give him a symbolic slap. Me, I'm hoping Xi will decide to pee on Schmiden's shoes--literally, but if not, at least symbolically. Projectile vomiting on him wd also be gd.

    Broken-

    The left, whatever that is (woke morons?) *is* fecal matter. Wh/is also true of the rt. Anyway, clogged toilet is an appropriate metaphor for the US.

    But let me ask you guys this. I came to political awareness around the time that Joe McCarthy was censured. At that time, and until I began writing the Twilight bk in the mid-90s, I tended to see America in a positive light. But from then on, I was painfully aware that when I took a step back, and looked at the US at a distance, as it were, what I saw was something shockingly ugly. I saw that America was pretty much a disgrace, and that Americans were bozos; that they didn't know shit from Shinola. I remain amazed at the difference between what I saw (or thought I saw) in the 1950s and what has become of this country, and its citizens, in the intervening years. It's nothing less than grotesque. Do any of you older folks feel this way?

    mb

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  186. Zelensky is back in Washington DC demanding more money from the US. First he cancels elections in his own country, then says he needs more money to save democracy. No one in the US media has pointed out this glaring contradiction. It's not surprising because there are very few actual journalists left in the US. And why isn't the US sending auditors to Ukraine to find out where exactly all those billions are going?

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-meeting-zelenskyy-urges-congress-thing-ukraine-aid/story?id=105583959

    https://www.axios.com/2023/11/16/newspapers-decline-hedge-funds-research

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  187. Jason-

    I imagine a lot of that $ is going into private pockets. Zelensky owns a villa in Tuscany and an estate in Florida, I believe. I wonder if he realizes that he is a proxy/pawn in a resurrected Cold War chess game.

    mb

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  188. "I didn't agree with, I suppose, the fundamentals in America: the emphasis on success. That seems to me a very vicious element in any society. I didn't want to live there anymore--I had enough of it. But once you reject something, it doen't bother you anymore (Paul Bowles in the documentary, "Let It Come Down," on Kanopy streaming video:https://www.kanopy.com/en/sanmarcostx/watch/video/5421869.)

    I've been fascinated with Bowles ever since I learned that he and Gore Vidal were friends and that Gore said that Paul, whenever he was in the US, itched to return to Morocco, that he absolutely hated being here. (I'm sorry that I don't have a reference for Vidal's statement but will post it when I track it down.)

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  189. "This was announced by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

    "If you look at the capital investments that we've made to protect Ukraine... then it will turn out that 90% of the military aid that we provided was actually spent here, in the United States, with our manufacturers," TASS quoted him as saying."
    https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2023-12-07-blinken--about-90--of-financial-military-aid-to-kyiv-remained-in-the-united-states.ryB3Y8a1Ua.html

    118 billion so far. That's 358 bucks per capita. To think my subscription to NetFlix over these last 22 months is equal to the complete destruction of the former Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine - my God! What a bargain! It's so much fun to pump money into the 1%ers defense stock portfolios! They averaged 35,800 bucks apiece! That's half a low end Mercedes!
    America - Fuck yeah!

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  190. Kelvin-

    Actually, most people continue to be bothered by the things they reject. Depends on how you reject them. Remember that the opposite of hatred is not love, but apathy. One can get to that place, but it takes a lot of inner work.

    comrade-

    Well at least Blinken was honest! Altho he didn't take the next logical step, and say that the Ukrainian caper is little more than theater.

    mb

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  191. MB-

    Re: Netherlands - Yes, unfortunately, there is a healthy population of buffoons here as well.

    The biggest disappointment here hasn't been the buffoons but more the unstoppable creeping influence of USA. (I think you refer to it as cultural imperialism/soft power).

    Things like Halloween parties and trick-or-treating that were unheard of a few years ago now are quite popular with teenagers. More and more American stores and restaurants show up in shopping areas. And if political attitudes are included, fringe theories and thinking infiltrate the consciousness here after gestating back home. I just wanted a break.

    https://nltimes.nl/2023/12/02/supreme-court-leader-concerned-self-declared-sovereign-citizens

    Some people here ask me why I moved away because USA seems so wonderful. I tell them they watch too much TV.

    I became a citizen on Friday. So, buffoons aside, the skin-shedding exercise continues...

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  192. Not confusion, just humor!
    Sorry if you misunderstood.

    I've tried to post serious stuff here
    that resonates with my worldview into which Dr Berman
    has contributed a great deal over the years,
    but that hasn't worked out too well due to considerations that seem to me trivial.

    That said, I have an abiding gratitude for what Dr. Berman's works have been for me since "Reenchantment..." in the early 90s, up to and including "Healing". For me all of that was worth the price of admission even if it goes no further.

    I'm currently working on a book of my own about the work I did in the field of education which was/is my career.

    So wishing you a good day that includes a laugh once in awhile

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  193. MB, thank you for this essay. Has it been published in a journal of some sort? It has tremendous explanatory power. I have watched only one Trump rally. There was a real sense of connection and the phrase tribal trance surely identifies what I saw. That was during the 2016 campaign. Again, thanks.
    Dawgzy

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